Tag Archives: TrueCrypt

Cloud Storage, Encrypt Dropbox Folder, Encryption, Free Software, Security, Strong Passwords, TrueCrypt

Encrypting Your Stuff – Create a TrueCrypt container for DropBox

July 18, 2013 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

In our last post we talked about containers. If you think about a container as a large box that you put things in, you’ll have the right idea. Today, let’s lock that box up tight using TrueCrypt.

We’ve written about TrueCrypt before but it’s certainly worth another post. First, it’s free and, second, it’s the easiest encryption tool we’ve ever used. Download it here: TrueCrypt

Point A. TrueCrypt can be installed on your computer or you can run it from a folder on your desktop (or anywhere else for that matter). It’s self-contained, in other words, able to run without being installed on your computer.

Tip: You can carry a copy of TrueCrypt around on a flash drive with your container. You would use TrueCrypt to open the container, interact with the contents then lock it up again.

Point B. Basically, you will create a folder, name it, encrypt it and use a password to lock it. TrueCrypt is very simple to use but we’ll run through the steps using screen captures, just so you don’t screw things up. In reality, the only thing you have to worry about is forgetting your password. If you do, everything in the encrypted folder is lost for good. That’s how powerful TrueCrypt is.

Here we go:

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 1 — **The TrueCrypt opening menu. You want to click on ‘Create Volume’.**

2. TrueCrypt has a few options to choose from but we want to do the simplest set-up here.

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 2 — **Choose the first one, ‘Create an encrypted file container.’**

3. Again, stick with the simplest volume (container):

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 3 — **We just want a Standard TrueCrypt volume here, nothing fancy.**

4. The next menu is a bit confusing. Take a look:

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 4 — **This is the most confusing part. Read our description of this menu.**

This menu seems to be asking you to choose a file/container, as if you have already created one. You haven’t created one yet but you will now. Don’t type anything in the space, just click the ‘Select File’ button. When the file menu opens, navigate to your Desktop. You can put the new file anywhere but we find it easier if it’s right in front of us, right there on our desktop. Read the warning! Do not choose an existing file. TrueCrypt will delete it and create a new file using the same name. Repeat, do NOT choose an existing file. Read step 5.

5. After you have navigated to your desktop, your next job is to type a name in the slot. You could name your new file Mary, Joe, Sparky, whatever you want. You can simply use a name or a number or an obscure combination of letters and numbers, it doesn’t matter. We would suggest, however, using a name and a file type. Why? We want a file type because someone who is looking for a hidden file would probably not look for a photo or video file, right? That’s why we named our file, ‘summertime.avi’. It’s not really an ‘avi’ file, though. It can’t be opened by any program other than TrueCrypt.

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 5 — **We chose to use ‘avi’ as the file type but you can use .txt or .docx or .dll, whatever.**

5. Once you click Save, TrueCrypt knows that the file it creates will be named, in our case, summertime.avi. Next, TrueCrypt will ask you what kind of encryption algorithm you want to use. Go with the defaults here unless you know what you’re doing.

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 6 — **Go with the flow, use the default settings here.**

6. How big should your container be? Only you know that. For our example, we set it to 1 gigabyte in size.

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 7 — **Don’t make it too small, use a decent size.**

7. Next comes the password. Use a good one. Make sure you don’t forget it. Read the tips that TrueCrypt gives here. You can always change the password later on, no worries.

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 8 — **A good password is vital.**

8. If your password is too short, TrueCrypt warns you about it.

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 9 — **Danger Will Robinson!**

9. Now comes the fun part. You’ll never see this anywhere else. You are now creating the encryption key as you move your mouse over this menu box. Take your time and do what the instructions tell you. Once you’re bored of darting back and forth, click Format and TrueCrypt will create the volume/container for you.

Photo of TrueCrypt menu — **Move your mouse up and down, around and around, back and forth.**

10. This is what you should see next:

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 10 — **Success! If you don’t see this, you screwed up somewhere but we think you’ll be fine.**

11. OK, you’ve created the container. It’s sitting on your desktop waiting to be used. How do you open it?

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 11 — **There is our ‘summertime.avi’ file on the desktop.**

Well, you won’t open that file with anything but TrueCrypt.

12. Using the same technique as before, navigate to the file on your desktop. What you want to do now is to tell TrueCrypt to ‘mount’ the container you just created. (Container, volume, file, all the same thing.)

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 12 — **When you get to the file, click Mount to open it.**

13. TrueCrypt will ask for your password. Again, don’t forget it.

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 13 — **Don’t ‘Cache passwords and keyfiles in memory’ OK?**

14. Click OK and the file is shown in the TrueCrypt window:

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 14 — **There is ‘summertime’avi’ waiting to be opened. Double click on it now.**

15. You’ve managed to create an encrypted container that is locked with a strong password. Now it’s time to fill it with your stuff:

Photo of TrueCrypt Container 15 — **Drag and drop files into this folder/container/volume up to the limit of room it has in it.**

16. When you have finished adding files, make sure you click Dismount All before you close TrueCrypt. You mount the volume, enter the password, add or look at the files in it, then close the folder then dismount it in TrueCrypt. Don’t forget the last part.

This is a long post, next time we’ll explain the DropBox part of it. Thanks for sticking with us so far!

Cloud Storage, Dropbox, Encrypt Dropbox Folder, Free Software, Privacy, Security, TrueCrypt

Protect Your Privacy with TrueCrypt – Part 3

October 4, 2012 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

In our last post, we created an encrypted volume using Truecrypt. This volume could be thought of as a folder but it’s a bit more than that. If you think of this thing that you created as a separate drive on your computer, you will have a better picture of what it really is. When you add a new hard drive to your computer, you have to mount it before you can use it. Before you can use your newly created folder, you also have to mount it. Using Truecrypt, we’ll show you how to mount the new volume in order to make use of it. 1. The new volume (folder) should be on your desktop. It may or may not have a three digit file-type designation, depending on how you chose to name it. If you didn’t use a three letter name, such as .avi or .mp3, Windows will not use an icon to give you an idea of what it thinks it is. Here’s what our volume looks like:

Photo of Truecrypt folder — **Windows knows there is something there, it just doesn’t know what.**

Just a simple, generic page icon. Windows does not associate a program with this volume/folder. You can’t double-click it to open it, right? Don’t forget that. Open Truecrypt now. 2. When Truecrypt is open, you’ll see this screen:

Photo of Truecrypt opening menu — **You are looking for ‘Select File’ then ‘Mount’.**

This is a standard Windows dialogue/menu, nothing different from most other programs. You open the program first, then use it to open a file that it can handle. Click on Select File, find the volume that you created then click Open to go back to the menu shown below. 3. Here is what you should see next :

You will see a number of drive letters in this menu, everything from G to Z. Choose a letter that isn’t currently being used by your computer. You’re pretty safe with anything past O or P. We have chosen T for this drive. Click on the word ‘Mount’ on the lower left of the menu. 4. Make sure you have the password that you used to create this volume. Truecrypt will prompt you for the password:

Photo of Truecrypt password menu. — **Type in the password that you used to create this volume.**

If you forget your password, there is nothing that you can do to retrieve it. Whatever volume you created is lost for good. Don’t lose your password. You’ve been warned. 5. Once you enter the correct password, Truecrypt will mount the volume. In other words, it will allow you to access it. It’s not open yet but it is accessible. This is what you should have on your screen now:

Photo of mounted Truecrypt drive. — **There it is by the letter T. Note the size difference of the folder.**

This drive is now accessible in two different ways. You can either double-click it now on the Truecrypt menu or navigate to it through Windows Explorer. In our case, it is listed as ‘Local Disk T’. Once you open the drive/volume/folder, drag and drop something into it. We chose to keep our encrypted text password document in ours. In this way, our passwords are protected by two walls, one through Notepad ++’s encryption and the other through Truecrypt ‘s. TIP: After you put the files into this volume/folder/drive, make sure that you dismount it before you close down Truecrypt. The process is this: Mount the drive, add or subtract files into it, dismount it. You can’t open the volume without mounting it and you should not close it without dismounting it. This is the only way that Truecrypt can guarantee to keep its contents safe. Two long and fairly convoluted posts, right? Keeping your data safe isn’t simple but we feel that using Truecrypt doesn’t require much tech savvy. If you follow our simple step-by-step instructions, you’ll be fine. What’s next? Moving this folder around inside of Dropbox. One more post on this topic and we’re done. Thanks for reading!

Cloud Privacy, Cloud Storage, Encrypt Dropbox Folder, Encryption, Security, TrueCrypt

Protect Your Privacy with TrueCrypt – Part 2

October 3, 2012 Computers Made Simple Leave a comment

In this post, we’ll describe how to encrypt a small folder using TrueCrypt, a free and very powerful encryption tool. You can put anything you want in this folder, of course, but the point of this exercise is to have something that is extremely safe from prying eyes that will allow you to keep your passwords or online account numbers private. Once you create this folder, you can put text files, documents…basically whatever you want to, as long as the total size is not larger than the folder you create. We’ll explain that later.

1. Download and install Truecrypt. You can install Truecrypt or run it from a folder. You could even keep the Truecrypt folder inside your Dropbox folder in order to make it available on every computer that you access Dropbox with.

2. Run Truecrypt. Here is the window that comes up at the start:

A volume is something that only Truecrypt can open. As you will notice later on, there is no three letter file designation to the folder/file/volume that you create. No other program will recognize it, not Windows, not Notepad, only Truecrypt.

Menu for TrueCrypt — **For the next few screens, you’ll just accept the default settings. Here, choose ‘Create an encrypted file container’ then click Next.**

Menu for TrueCrypt 3 — **Click Next to start creating a Standard TrueCrypt volume.**

Don’t get confused here. You’re not choosing a file or folder, you are really creating a volume somewhere you are on your computer. We chose our Desktop but you’re on your own here. All you do in this menu is simply type in a name, make up anything you want. You can even use a three letter file name to make this Truecrypt volume look like another kind of file. The default program for that type of file, .avi or .mp3 for instance, will NOT be able to open it, remember? Only Truecrypt can open this file.

Photo of TrueCrypt — **You’re on your own here but we chose a 1 MB file, lots of room for our password text file.**

10.

11.

12.

Move your mouse all over this menu for a minute or two then click Format. Truecrypt will then format the volume that you just made, creating, more or less, a separate drive on your computer. That drive is controlled by Truecrypt, nothing else. Windows doesn’t know anything about it, other than it takes up space. It cannot open the volume and will not even suggest a program that might open it.

13.

14.

That’s it for now. This post is long enough but we’ve accomplished a lot. You now know how to create a locked volume that can be opened only by you. Even if someone gets access to your computer or your cloud folder, they will not be able to see what is inside this folder. Cool huh?

Next time, we’ll show you how to use this volume. Basically, you just mount it using your password, open it then drop files into it and then dismount it. Once you dismount it, it is locked again.

Thanks for reading!

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