ZuluCrypt: Encrypt drives
Insulate your data another way, Mayank Sharma show you how.
While you can control access to the data on your computer using user accounts and file permissions, they aren’t enough to prevent a determined intruder from gaining access to your private files. The only reliable way to keep your personal data to yourself is to use encryption. Sure, working with encrypted data is an involved process, but it’ll go a long way in reinforcing your security and insulating your data. ZuluCrypt is a graphical encryption application that has an intuitive and easy-to-follow interface. Using the application you can create an encrypted disk within a file, a partition and even USB disks. It can also be used to encrypt individual files with GPG.
To install ZuluCrypt head to http://mhogomchungu. github.io/zuluCrypt and scroll down the page to the binary packages section. The applcation is available as installable Deb package files for Debian and Ubuntu. Download the package for your distro and extract it with tar xf zuluCrypt*. tar.xz . Inside the extracted folder, switch to the folder corresponding to your architecture (i386 for older 32-bit machines and amd64 for new 64-bit ones). Both folders contain four binary packages that you can install in one go with the sudo dpkg -i *deb command. On other distros you will have to install ZuluCrypt manually. Download the application’s tarball and follow the detailed steps in the included build-instructions file to fetch the dependencies from your distro’s repos.
One of the first things you should do after installing is to create encrypted versions of all files that you consider sensitive. Fire up the application and head to zC > Encrypt A File. In the dialog box that comes up press on the button adjacent to the Source field and navigate to the file you wish to encrypt. ZuluCrypt will use this information to create a file with the same name and append the zC extension at the end – or save it elsewhere by clicking on the folder icon adjacent to the Destination field and navigating to a new location.
Next enter the password for encrypting the file in the key field. Make sure the password is a mix of characters and numbers to make it difficult to guess. Also remember that there’s no means of recovering the password if you ever forget it, and no possibility of decrypting the file – that’s sort of the point! Once you’ve confirmed the password press the ‘Create’ button to encrypt the file. This process might take some time depending on the type and size of the file you are encrypting. Once it’s done you’ll have the encrypted version with the .zC extension in the destination location you specified earlier. Once a file has been encrypted, make sure you delete its original version.
You’ll now have to decrypt the file before you can read and make changes. For this, launch ZuluCrypt and head to zC > Decrypt A File. Point to the encrypted file in the Source field and alter the location of the unlocked file in the Destination field. Now enter the password with which you encrypted the file and click the ‘Create’ button. When it’s done, the decrypted file will be created in the specified destination. To lock the file again, encrypt it by following the previously outlined procedure.
Encrypted data silos
Individually encrypting files works adequately if you only need to protect a couple of files. Generally, it’s a cumbersome process and is only suitable for files you don’t need to read or modify regularly. If you need to protect a number of files that you access frequently, a better approach is to file them inside encrypted storage areas.
ZuluCrypt can perform block device encryption, which means that it can encrypt everything written to a certain block device. The block device can be a whole disk, a partition or even a file mounted as a loopback device. With block device encryption, the user creates the file system on the block device, and the encryption layer transparently encrypts the data before writing it to the actual lower block device. While encrypted the storage areas just appears like a large blob of random data and doesn’t even reveal its directory structure.
To create an encrypted storage device within a file, fire up ZuluCrypt and head to Create > Encrypted Container In A File. In the window that pops up you’ll have to enter the name and complete path of the directory under which you’ll house your sensitive data. It’s called a file, because it’ll appear as a singular file when it’s encrypted. You’ll also have to specify the size of the directory depending on the size of the files it’ll house and the space available of your disk.
When you press the ‘Create’ button, ZuluCrypt pops up another window. First up you’ll have to specify a password for encrypting the file. Next, you’ll have to select a Volume Type.