Kremlin Encrypt

...already has!

Kremlin enables you to encrypt individual files or whole folders with a password, so that only people with the correct password can decrypt and read the information. It's very easy to do; you just right click the file or folder, click Encrypt or Decrypt, enter the password and it's done. It even asks you if you want to securely delete the original - more on that in a bit. One final advantage: it also compresses files as ...
..."In its most secure setting, Kremlin uses 160 bits of encryption key. If one billion computers were each searching one billion keys per second, it would take over 10^13 years to recover a file encrypted with Kremlin. That's 10,000,000,000,000 years, more than the life of the universe!"

Not only does Kremlin allow you to encrypt and decrypt files quickly, it also allows you to "securely delete" files. You may be ... more

If someone asked you if they could examine your personal computer in depth and read every one of your files, would you let them? Probably not, because you may have some files which are private that you wouldn't want them to see. Maybe it's a diary you have been keeping or your financial details, maybe it's just a leather fetish you don't want getting out - whatever it is, you don't want people looking so you don't let them.

But why assume people have to ask your permission before they browse the contents of your disk? People are nosy by nature and anyone with physical access to your machine is quite likely to explore it at one time or another. There is also the unseen danger; anybody over the internet being able to gain access to your system via a well known security flaw and helping themselves to your personal information. If you are of the "Well that won't happen to MY computer!" mindset, the chances are it already has!

Kremlin enables you to encrypt individual files or whole folders with a password, so that only people with the correct password can decrypt and read the information. It's very easy to do; you just right click the file or folder, click Encrypt or Decrypt, enter the password and it's done. It even asks you if you want to securely delete the original - more on that in a bit. One final advantage: it also compresses files as it encrypts them so that the filesize ends up much smaller. As the website points out: "Why use WinZip when you can use Kremlin?"

You could encrypt a text file containing all your deepest secrets, send it to all your friends (make sure you don't send the original by mistake) and feel completely safe that the contents would not be readable to them without the password! You can even choose from various different encryption algorithms, RC4 encryption being the default and arguably the best. An interesting statistic from the website: "In its most secure setting, Kremlin uses 160 bits of encryption key. If one billion computers were each searching one billion keys per second, it would take over 10^13 years to recover a file encrypted with Kremlin. That's 10,000,000,000,000 years, more than the life of the universe!"

Not only does Kremlin allow you to encrypt and decrypt files quickly, it also allows you to "securely delete" files. You may be aware that when you right click a file in Windows, hit delete and clear it from your recycle bin it's not actually gone. It can be read by anyone with the right equipment. Secure deletion is when the data is overwritten a number of times so that it actually is gone, unrecoverable forever.

Another great feature is the ability to do a "system wipe" - this basically cleans your system of anything that could be private but no longer needed, i.e. ghost files of previously deleted Word documents, last opened document history and various other hidden files and old remnants of files.

There's also the ability to write emails in an included text editor, encrypt that text and then send it to a recipient via email - leaving no trace of the contents of that email (in decrypted form) on your computer.

So where can you get this great program?

http://kremlinencrypt.com/kremlin/pc_index.html is the official homepage and where you can find a full description of the programs features. The purpose of this review is to describe the main features and support the creators claims that it does in fact do what it says it does - and very well indeed!

Installation is a synch and only takes a few minutes. I first installed this program around 3 years ago and have used it ever since. I don't think it's had a proper update in those 3 years, but the fact is it doesn't need one. When this program came out I remember thinking it was before its time, and now 3 years on it still has more features than most much more recent encryption programs.

One last thing: Price. It's basically free now, seeing as they no longer accept payment for the International version of Kremlin. This means that you just have to put up with a reminder to register every time you select encrypt file, secure delete etc. You can simply click OK and get on with what you're doing, it's not a problem.

So overall I'm very impressed with Kremlin and would recommend it to anyone who is concerned with their privacy. Hope this didn't sound too much like an advert! As always I appreciate any comments on this review and will update it if there are any suggestions. 

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