Encrypt Files and Folders With Pictures and Not Passwords
Author: Raymond22 Jan
Encryption is a method which allows information to be hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge or tools. To encrypt a file, you’ll usually need a software that is able to encrypt the file and then you’ll also need to create a key which only you and the person who needs to decode the file will know. Just like you putting important documents or money in a safe box which is then locked with a key or secret code. You can never let other people have the key or the secret code because that will allow other people to open your safe and steal whatever its in there.
Same with computer. Today I found a very interesting encryption software which is able to encrypt files and folders without using password. Instead, it uses pictures or images as the key to perform encryption and decryption. Very innovative! Using pictures or images as key might be a good idea because nowadays people have not one, but dozens of passwords. It can be hard to remember them, and you might lose precious data when you forget them.
PixelCryptor lets you choose a picture and use it to combine your files into a package. The pixel data is used to encrypt your data. The combinations are endless and hard to break. Currently there is no backdoor or workarounds. Once encrypted, it cannot be unlocked without the correct picture file.
To encrypt a file with PixelCryptor:
1. Download and install PixelCryptor.
2. Click Encode Files button.
3. You can click Add Folder or Add File to add the files that you want to encrypt. Drag and drop is also possible.
4. Click at the place where it says “Click here to select an image”, and browse the picture that you would like to use as a key.
5. Click on the small browse icon to select where you’d like to save the CGP encrypt file. Once the encryption is done, all files and folders that you selected just now will be packed into one CGP file.
That was really easy! What I really like about PixelCryptor is it’s very user friendly. PixelCryptor is portable. You can copy PixelCryptor folder from C:\Program Files\CodeGazer\ to your USB flash drive and run it on another computer. However, PixelCryptor requires Microsoft .NET 2.0 or newer to be installed in order to run. As for the picture file, I’d advice that you use the picture that you upload yourself and not from some website. Reason is if the website is down, you won’t be able to decode your file. Or maybe the website decided to enhance the picture, it can’t be used to decrypt your file too.
There are even more powerful, proven to be strong encryption tool than PixelCryptor, but it’s a good alternative for basic users who just want to encrypt files without using passwords.
Technorati Tags: encrypt, pixelcryptor, security, cipher, decrypt
: Copying this article to your website is strictly NOT allowed. However, if you like this article, you can use the HTML code below to directly link to this article.
Related Articles
Top Common Password Being Used and Women Uses Better Password Than Men Disable Files, Folders and Text from Being Copied or Moved in Windows Resize Image or Pictures Online Recover Windows Login password within minutes How Terrorist Hide Messages in Images How To Find Hidden Passwords in Firefox Reveal Passwords Hidden Under Asterisks
Incoming Search Terms for the Article
encrypt pictures - how to encrypt pictures - how to encrypt files in picture - picture of encryption - how to encrypt image files - how to encrypt files to a picture? - password dimenticata file jpg - encode file in a picture - encrypting pictures - encrypt file with picture - text encryption - encrypt a file with an image - how to encrypt picutre - encrypt picture - encrypting files to pictures - encrypt file in image - encryption - password on files without encripting - password on files without encryption - encrypt files in pictures - how do i look at encrypted images - encrypt data into pictures - forget Tcrypt password - pictures of encrypting - tcrypt download - passwords for the encrypted file test drive 6 - encrypting files in pictures - encrypt folders without software - open encrypted photos - encrypt a picture file - Encrypt file or folders pic - how decrypt encrypted file without key - encrypting a file like a picture - encrypt a picture - encrypt a file into a picture - how to cure when a image is encrypted - {SearchTerms}simple strong easy to remember passwords - encrypt files in images - how to encode data into pictures - open encrypted jpeg - open crypted pictures - encode files into pictures - how can i look at encryped photos - encrypting files with a image - how to encrypt files into images - how can i open encrypted file in other computer - how to get the encrypted photos files - encrypted pictures - encrypt files into a pixel - encripting a flashdrive -
Categories
Recent Comments
- Nagobonar: hi ray, really helpful. thank
- Ahmad Saleem: Fantastic information, Thanks ray, I
- Bill: All these tools are useful
- usama: its very cool
- tim: burned the disc but i
- tash: i forgot to add im
- tash: steve was a hero, even
- MrDarkfire7: if you need a valid
- Jen: I am also recieving this
- suresh: Eset is best one ya.....................
Have computer technical problems? Get FREE help from Raymond.CC FORUM
12 Responses for "Encrypt Files and Folders With Pictures and Not Passwords"
[...] original here: Encrypt Files and Folders With Pictures and Not Passwords [...]
Ray you need to change the download link it doest work .
i had to download the software from downloads.com
just letting you know
LOL… i heard this new type of approach on the BBC World Service’s DigitalPlanet some months ago, but at that time it was only used on PDAs and other hand-writing recognition devices.
Thanks for blogging about this software. Used with combination with some other encryption utility – it can prove to be provide safe environment for one`s private files.
Another nice one Raymond, I will have to give that one a try as I am always looking for good encryption software.
Another application that allows a similar technique is TCrypt though it allows you to pick any number of different files of any type to use as the key with or without an additional password. To decrypt all you have to do is point the TCrypt program at the files you initially selected to use for creating the key. Of course TCrypt is meant more for full disk, partition or volume encryption rather than individual file or files. But it is easy to create a volume of any size on the fly as required which can then be transferred to any other media or transport mechanism, as convenient, to someone else. All you have to do if using a number of files to create the encryption key and wish to share the encrypted volume with a third party is to agree with a third party which files to use for creating the files and as long as they have a copy of the exact same files they can then decrypt the volume using TCrypt.
Additionally, the main download includes a folder with a traveller version which doesn’t tie into the system and so can be copied to and run from any type of external drive making it easy to take with you, as I do on a flash drive. Though like PixelCRyptor, it has no back door or workaround, so if you lose the password (if you used one) or any of the files you used to create the encryption key you are screwed.
As you can see I am a big fan of TCrypt. Especially as It also has the ability to have a shadow encrypted volume hidden inside an already encrypted volume. Thus if you are ever forced to reveal the password to the first encrypted volume there is nothing to show that there is another encrypted volume hidden inside it. For if the opened encrypted volume is scanned it only appears as empty space with no sign that there may be another shadow volume. Though using a shadow encrypted volume inside an already encrypted volume is probably overkill for the average user, but it has its uses for those with a real need for deep and deniable encryption.
VERY nice, i am impressed. keep up the excellent work, Raymond.
The only issue I can see is that if someone even slightly alters the image used to encrypt the data, it’s end of story. Let’s say you use a JPEG to encrypt the data – Open the JPEG file in an image editor to look at it, accidentally hit “Save” and the file is re-compressed, changing the data in the JPEG and denying access to your encrypted data.
But then again, if you treat the encryption image like a password and keep it safe (from editing etc) then it won’t be a problem.
So if the ‘attacker’ knew you used this program, he/she knows that you probably stored the image on the computer as opposed to the internet. Wouldn’t it be easy to write a simple program that takes all of your image files on your computer and try the decryption process?
Isn’t it more like saying, “Hey my password is an image file on my computer, start with My Pictures and move on from there”?
Let me know if I got something wrong!
Andrew, that makes sense IF the attacker knew “how” the PixelCryptor works and able to write a program that searches all images on the computer.
If an attacker has this good knowledge, I doubt he wants to decrypt someone’s file that uses PixelCryptor. Instead, he should be looking for TrueCrypt to decrypt. It’s like a really good hacker trying to hacker a n00b.
Raymond, one of the first rules of encryption security is to always assume that the attacker knows the software and method you used. If you’re going to ignore that rule, then you might as well not encrypt.
It’s not hard to find out that someone has encrypted files on their system. It’s easy to see what software is installed. From those two facts you can deduce PixelCryptor. After that all you’d need to do is run a search on the system for picture files (Start, Search). Next, compare the last accessed date of the pictures with the creation time of the encrypted file. That instantly tells you the picture that was used.
You don’t even need computer forensic software or programming skills to do this, just a little knowledge.
If encryption companies really want to protect noobs, they shouldn’t make snake oil products like this. Noobs who want to protect their files should skip the gimmicks and learn to use TrueCrypt.
Thanks for blogging about this software.VERY nice, i am impressed. keep up the excellent work.
Raymond.
thanks for sharing ..very useful blog
Leave a reply