You Can Hide From Prying Eyes – With This Cloudeight Freeware Pick

EB has tons of files she doesn’t want me to see. I don’t know what they are, but I sure have some good guesses. Anyway, she’s always looking for a why to keep her files hidden. Doesn’t she realize that by being so secretive she only raises my suspicions? I guess not, because the years roll by she’s being secretly storing thousands of “things” that she keeps hidden from me. You know what I think? I think she’s storing the goods she’s got on me in case I’m ever foolish enough to run for public office. I can see it now – “Thundercloud sleeps with stuff bunny rabbit”. Yes knows things like this. She knows I like ketchup on chocolate and other stuff I don’t want anyone to know. She knows more juicy stuff too, but you know this is a family publication.

Anyway, most of you don’t know this, but I’m a songwriter too. And at least with songs, I don’t have to worry about grammarians sending me nasty emails ripping apart my sloppy grammar. When I write songs, I’m entitled to use something known as poetic license. And I love to use it – a lot!

So I wrote this song for EB – because she keeps hiding stuff from me.

Prying Eyes
(sing to the tune of the Eagles’ “Lyin’ Eyes”)

Girls who live in Michigan are sneaky
They cover up their misdeeds in some files
They run around and hide their dirty secrets
And then give you all those toothy smiles.

All those folders hidden behind her desktop
Labeled with nice names like church and ski
But she can’t fool this guy who’s from Ohio
No Michigander can fool me – no siree!

She can’t hide, from my prying eyes.
And her smile is a thin disguise.
I thought by now, she’d realize
She ain’t gonna hide a thing from my prying eyes.

As you can see, by now, I’m quite talented. Next week, as a treat, I’m going to sing that song for all of you, while strumming my guitar. It will be a newsletter for you to remember, and one EB will want to forget.

Anyway, I’ve rambled long enough. And the smart ones among you have already skipped all of above, and are looking for the meat of this article. You still haven’t found it have you? OK I get the hint.

This Cloudeight freeware pick can help you hide your files from prying eyes. If you’re a TSA body-prober or run the body scanning machines, you’ll really love this Cloudeight freeware pick. It will help you keep all those nasty purloined photos of odd-shaped people — the ones you groped at airports all over the country. If you’re not a TSA agent (and hopefully, most of your aren’t) you’ll appreciate encrypting all your sensitive files. I like it because I can hide pictures of myself when I was 20 from myself. That way I I don’t have to be reminded of how old and wrinkly I’ve become. But hey, my mind is still as spunky as a 20-something’s.

Today’s freeware pick (starting over again, trying to stay on track here) is a free program that can encrypt a folder, a USB flash drive, or a whole disk partition so only you can see the contents of those folders, drives or partitions – as long as you remember your password that is. Why would you want to encrypt anything? I don’t know. I give up? Why? Why? I don’t know…but you know. You might have bank statements from a secret bank account you don’t want your spouse to see. Maybe you were saving up against the advent of a quick getaway? Maybe your obsessed with Mickey Mouse (or worse, Minnie Mouse) and you’d be embarrassed if anyone saw your collection of 2 GB worth of Mickey Mouse photos – including 4 autographed photos of you and Mickey standing in front of the Magic Kingdom. How the heck do I know why you’d want to encrypt your files? That’s between you and your files, not between you and me.

I’m done. Now I’m going to bring in the program’s developer to give you some real information about his wonderful and increasingly popular freeware program. And without a another word:

“TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on the fly encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted right before it is loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password/keyfile(s) or correct encryption keys. Entire file system is encrypted (e.g., file names, folder names, contents of every file, free space, meta data, etc).

Files can be copied to and from a mounted TrueCrypt volume just like they are copied to/from any normal disk (such as simple drag-and-drop operations). Files are automatically being decrypted on the fly (in memory/RAM) while they are being read or copied from an encrypted TrueCrypt volume. Similarly, files that are being written or copied to the TrueCrypt volume are automatically being encrypted on the fly (right before they are written to the disk) in RAM. Note that this does not mean that the whole file that is to be encrypted/decrypted must be stored in RAM before it can be encrypted/decrypted. There are no extra memory (RAM) requirements for TrueCrypt. For an illustration of how this is accomplished, see the following paragraph.

Let’s suppose that there is an .avi video file stored on a TrueCrypt volume (therefore, the video file is entirely encrypted). The user provides the correct password (and/or keyfile) and mounts (opens) the TrueCrypt volume. When the user double clicks the icon of the video file, the operating system launches the application associated with the file type – typically a media player. The media player then begins loading a small initial part of the video file from the TrueCrypt-encrypted volume to RAM (memory) in order to play it. While the part is being loaded, TrueCrypt is automatically decrypting it (in RAM). The decrypted part of the video (stored in RAM) is then played by the media player. While this part is being played, the media player begins loading next small part of the video file from the TrueCrypt-encrypted volume to RAM (memory) and the process repeats. This process is called on-the-fly encryption/decryption and it works for all file types, not only for video files.

Note that TrueCrypt never saves any decrypted data to a disk – it only stores them temporarily in RAM (memory). Even when the volume is mounted, data stored in the volume is still encrypted. When you restart Windows or turn off your computer, the volume will be dismounted and files stored in it will be inaccessible (and encrypted). Even when power supply is suddenly interrupted (without proper system shut down), files stored in the volume are inaccessible (and encrypted). To make them accessible again, you have to mount the volume (and provide the correct password and/or keyfile)….”

If that sounds like something you’ve been longing for or pining after, then you’ll be eternally grateful for this week’s freeware pick of the week “TrueCrypt”. You can learn a lot more and/or download TrueCrypt from the TrueCrypt web site.

Facts for the curious:

TrueCrypt
What is it?  A heavy-duty, free file encryption tool
Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 32bit and 64bit
Download info:  3.3MB Windows Executable (EXE)

NOTE: We are not responsible for your use of this program. If you encrypt important files and forget your password, you’re out of luck. Really. Use this program with care and keep you password burned in your brain. Or write it down on a piece of paper and stick it your sock drawer. If you are going to write down your password, don’t write “Password for TrueCrypt” on the paper. Just write the password and put it somewhere safe. If anyone finds it, they won’t have any clue what Abv83e66M12671p is. If someone asks, just tell them it’s your car’s registration number. See? I learned that bit of chicanery from the best, EB herself.