Compressed Security with BetterZip
This is a little bit of an exploration post to find out how the TotalApps community secure files for transport via email. In a technological era of moving our valuable data to ‘cloud computing’ it is important we take every precaution to ensure our data is secure. In this post I am going to outline just two ways I secure confidential files that are to be stored in the cloud or emailed to colleagues.
For a number of years I have used one of the easiest applications for encrypting files on the Mac entitled ‘Bitclamp’. Bitclamp offered up to 448bitblowfish encryption and even boasted the ability to make the encrypted files mimic other file types (Word etc) thus allowing secure data to be disguised that bit further.
Sadly,when I visited the developer’s website it appears Bitclamp is no longer being developed. Bitclamp was brilliant for personal use offering a very level of encryption but one negative was all users had to have Bitclamp installed to be able to decrypt the archive, thus ruling out our Windows using colleagues.
Welcome BetterZip
It should be noted that Betterzip isn’t just an application for encrypting files but it is in fact a powerful and massively capable archive/zip application for OSX.
1. Main BetterZip Control area, 2. Zip file contents.
3. Compatibility mode and compression information.
Unlike the archive service built into OSX Betterzip allows you to open archives without extracting the entire contents. Double click on a compressed file ( ZIP, SIT, TAR, GZip, BZip2, RAR, 7-Zip, CPIO, ARJ, LZH/LHA, JAR, WAR, CAB, ISO, CHM, RPM, DEB, NSIS, BIN, HQX, DD.) to directly view the content, Betterzip also has a built in search feature that allows you to find specific files directly from within the application.
Archives can also be manipulated via BetterZip, you can add, change and delete files from existing archives directly from the interface, in short Betterzip is like Finder for archive files.
Creating Archives is a breeze with BetterZip. Simply drag your files and folders into the Betterzip interface and when you have added all the necessary data simple click “save” to complete the compression process. Supported formats include ZIP, TAR, GZip and BZip2 compressed TAR, 7-ZIP, and RAR (using the external RAR commandline tool). Large archives can be also be split for easy sharing.
Security
For me one of the best features of BetterZip is the high level of encryption the application offers. With BetterZip you can protect your data with a standard password or create WinZip® compatible AES-256 encrypted archives. This means you can now encrypt and share information via email with both Mac and Windows users using a simple single zip file.
1. Name and set save location. 2. Adjust file type and level of encryption.
3. Select encryption level (if necessary).
In Conclusion
It really is hard to fault BetterZip as it not only offers brilliant compression services but it also fills a much needed gap in my encryption requirements. Zip, Encrypt and email your private documents in seconds.
If you need to secure your data at less than $20 BetterZip is the perfect solution.
BetterZip is available from MacitBetter.com
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