Five Best File Encryption Tools

Keeping your personal data safe doesnt have to be difficult, as long as you keep sensitive information encrypted and under your control. Thats why this week were looking at the five best file encryption tools you can use to encrypt your data locally.

Title photo by andrey_l (Shutterstock)

For the purposes of this roundup, were focusing on desktop file encryption tools the ones you use on your own computer to encrypt your own private data. Were not examining cloud services that promise to encrypt your data, or business services that say they offer encryption. The goal here is to find the best tools you can use to lock down your sensitive files whether theyre photos, financial documents, personal backups, or anything else and keep them locked down so only you have the key. For those unfamiliar with the topic, we have a great guide on how encryption works, and how you can use it to keep your own data safe.

With that out of the way, here are your top five, in no particular order:

VeraCrypt is a fork of and a successor to TrueCrypt, which ceased development last year (more on it later.) The development team claims they have addressed some of the issues that were raised during TrueCrypts initial security audit, while largely maintaining its familiar interface. Like the original, its free, with versions available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

VeraCrypt supports AES (the most commonly used choice), TwoFish and Serpent encryption ciphers, and allows the creation of hidden, encrypted volumes within other volumes. Its code is available to review, although its not strictly open source (because so much of its codebase came from TrueCrypt.) The tool is also under constant development, with regular security updates and an independent audit in the planning stages (according to the developers.)

AxCrypt is a free, open source, GNU GPL-licensed encryption tool for Windows that prides itself on being simple, efficient and easy to use. It integrates nicely with the Windows shell, so you can right-click a file to encrypt it, or configure timed, executable encryptions, so the file is locked down for a specific period of time and will self-decrypt later, or when its intended recipient gets it. Files with AxCrypt can be decrypted on demand or kept decrypted while theyre in use, and then automatically re-encrypted when theyre modified or closed.

Its fast, too, and allows you to select an entire folder or just a large group of files and encrypt them all with a single click. Its entirely a file encryption tool however, meaning creating encrypted volumes or drives is beyond its capabilities. It supports 128-bit AES encryption only, offers protection against brute force cracking attempts, and is exceptionally lightweight (less than 1MB.) It also has a lot of command line options, so you can fire up the command prompt in Windows and perform more complex action sequences.

BitLocker is a full-disk encryption tool built into Windows Vista and Windows 7 (Ultimate and Enterprise), and into Windows 8 (Pro and Enterprise), as well as Windows Server (2008 and later). It supports AES (128 and 256-bit) encryption, and while its primarily used for whole-disk encryption, it also enables encrypting other volumes or a virtual drive that can be opened and accessed like any other drive on your computer.

It supports multiple authentication mechanisms, including traditional password and PINs, a USB key, and the more controversial Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology, which uses hardware to integrate keys into devices. BitLockers integration with Windows makes it accessible to many people, and a viable disk encryption tool for individuals looking to protect their data. One concern? Since the code is locked into Windows, you cant review it, and its sometimes asserted that government agencies have backdoor access to decrypt data (though Microsoft denies this).

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Five Best File Encryption Tools