Five Best File Encryption Tools [Hive Five]

File encryption is your best bet with a purpose to keep The fellow, foreign spies, or your annoying roommates out of your files. Here’s a have a look at five of the most well-liked encryption tools Lifehacker readers use to lock down their files.

Image a composite of photos by Anonymous Account and flaivoloka .

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite encryption tool . We tallied up your votes, and now we’re back to spotlight the five premier tools for the encryption job.

GNU Privacy Guard (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)

GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is an open-source implementation of the the famed Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption tool-you’ll read the very interesting history of PGP and how GnuPG came to be here . GnuPG is a volume and individual file encryption tool with support for a dozen encryption schemes, paired keys, and expiring signatures. GnuPG doesn’t only provide rock-solid local file encryption; that’s, due to paired encryption and public key servers, a useful gizmo for encrypted communication. Please note, regular old GnuPG is a command line tool. Take a look at the list of graphical wrappers and application plugins for numerous operating systems here . The screenshot above is from Cryptophane, a graphical Windows interface for GnuPG .

Disk Utility (Mac, Free)

Disk Utility is a diverse tool that handles almost any disk-related tasks you’d need on OS X. The utility is capable of establishing secure disk images and file volumes encrypted with AES 128-bit or 256-bit encryption. Like most native Mac utilities and applications, Disk Utility and the accompanying encryption blends seamlessly into the OS X experience and makes mounting and unmounting encrypted volumes a breeze. While you’ve never created an encrypted disk using Disk Utility before, check out our previous guide .

TrueCrypt (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)

TrueCrypt is a free, powerful, and on-the-fly disk encryption tool. With TrueCrypt, that you would be able to create secure encrypted virtual disks or maybe encrypt entire drives . TrueCrypt is an on-the-fly encryption tool, meaning files are decrypted as you access them and modify them and then encrypted when not in use. Due to various optimization tricks and whole utilization of the ability of contemporary processors, working within a TrueCrypt volume feels no different than working on a standard unsecured disk. TrueCrypt not only offers strong and transparent encryption-it also offers the power to create hidden volumes within encrypted volumes for even more secure (and obscured) file protection.

7-zip (Windows, Free)

Compared to a couple of the heavyweights in this Hive Five (like GnuPG and TrueCrypt), it’d be easy to dismiss the preferred file compression tool 7-zip as a light-weight. 7-zip fills a really perfect niche for plenty people, however, by offering simple ZIP container-based encryption. Once you’re not concerned about encrypting a ton of files or maintaining a whole encrypted volume, but you still have the desire to make sure important documents like tax returns or other Social Security bearing documents are locked up tight, 7-zip sports strong AES-256 encryption. Create a new compressed archive, throw your files in it, and slap a password on. Your files are strongly encrypted and stored right alongside your regular documents.

AxCrypt (Windows, Free)

AxCrypt is a free encryption tool for Windows. Once installed it integrates with the Windows shell and provides simple right-click encryption and decryption of files with AES-256 encryption. Your complete interaction with AxCrypt can come about exclusively from the proper-click context menu. Besides integrating with Windows and offering easy encryption and decryption, you may also use the tool to create self-extracting archives to safely transport files or transfer them to a pal-no AxCrypt installation necessary at the alternative end.

Now that you simply’ve had a raffle to appear over the five ultimate file encryption tools among Lifehacker readers, it’s time to cast a vote to your favorite.

Which File Encryption Tool Is healthier? online surveys

If you’ve got experience with any of these tools, let’s hear more about what makes it your tool-of-choice inside the comments. Have an excellent idea for a better Hive Five? Shoot us an email at tips@lifehacker.com with ” Hive Five” within the subject line. We’ll do our best to provide your idea the awareness it deserves.

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This post is tagged: anonymous account, encrypted volumes, gnu privacy guard, open source implementation, pretty good privacy, windows interface