Screenshots: Five easy-to-use tools to handle encryption on Linux
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Introduction
Introduction
If you think data is more precious than ever, you shouldrncertainly consider its security to be a priority. And with more and morernbusinesses working with multiple platforms, you have to be prepared to workrnwith encryption on just about every business-ready operating system available. IncludingrnLinux. Fortunately, you have plenty of encryption-ready tools to choose from.
But which tools should you be looking at? If you open up,rnsay, the Ubuntu Software Center, you’ll find the majority of tools availablern(under the “encryption” search results) to be nothing more thanrnlibraries to resolve dependencies. Dig a bit deeper, though, and you’ll find everythingrnyou need for easy-to-use encryption. I’ve uncovered five such tools forrnencryption on the Linux platform.
Note: This gallery is also available as an article.
Image: iStockphoto.com/ChrisBoswell
GnuPG
The command to encrypt a file is:
gpg -c filename
where filename isrnthe name of the file to encrypt. The encryption will attach a .gpg extension tornthe file.
To decrypt a file, the command is
gpg filename.gpg
This is the easiest, fastest way to encrypt files (even though you dornhave to touch the command line).
VeraCrypt
VeraCrypt is an enhanced version of TrueCryptrnthat works on a much more secure level. How much more secure? Well, TrueCryptrnuses PBKDF2-RIPEMD160 with 1,000 iterations—and VeraCrypt uses 327,661rniterations. The GUI for VeraCrypt is simple to use and walks you through thernentire process of creating encrypted containers.
VeraCrypt
One caveat: The creation, encryption, mounting, andrndecryption of containers take a bit of time. But the added time is worth thernextra security. VeraCrypt can load containers created by TrueCrypt and convertrnTrueCrypt containers to the VeraCrypt format.
KGpg
With a GUI like KGpg, you remove that barrier to entry andrnmanaging those encryption keys becomes exponentially easier. And KGpg comesrnwith a built-in editor that allows you to open and edit simple text documents.rnWith this editor you can also encrypt and decrypt those documents, although yourncan’t open documents created in tools such as LibreOffice or Microsoft Word.rnThis is text-only.
Gnome Encfs Manager
Gnome Encfs Manager makes creating “stashes” (akarncontainers) easy. With just a few clicks, you can create and configure a hiddenrnfolder on your Linux directory. Options include mounting on boot, idle timeoutrnlocks, stash groups, and password change. Gnome Encfs Manager can work only withrnencfs, so you won’t be decrypting containers from other systems—this isrnLinux-only.
