Using AES 256 Bit Encryption, LockNote Keeps Your Sensitive Information Secure Whether you have passwords or serial numbers to store or need to e-mail sensitive information to your non-profit board members or your online volunteers, LockNote provides a quick, easy and secure method to hide your information from prying eyes. LockNote, by Steganos, is a free (open-source) PC application that stores your sensitive information within an AES 256 bit encrypted password-protected exe file. LockNote, as shown in the Screen capture above, is similar to Notepad but with the added ability to create secure documents. As LockNote is open-source, the source code is available for anyone to review. Recently, security expert Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation (GRC.com) did an analysis of LockNote's source code. In his February 11, 2010 "Security Now" podcast (Episode 235) he revealed his glowing findings about LockNote: "So they did everything. It is bulletproof. These guys clearly know their crypto, which is great news. And having looked at this, I can tell our listeners that this is as secure as it gets. I mean, everything was done right. Use it without fear." How to Use LockNote
- Download LockNote (requires Windows 2000, Windows XP+), which is contained within a Zip archive, to your desktop, from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/LockNote/
- Using the Windows built-in unpacker (or an application such as WinZip or 7-Zip), extract the files from the Zip archive (LockNote-1.0.4-src+binary.zip). There will be a folder called "src" (source code) and the "LockNote.exe" application
- Drag the LockNote.exe file to your desktop and delete the rest of the files and folders
LockNote works with text only either via copying/pasting text (or typing) into a LockNote window or by dragging and dropping text files (files with a .txt extension) over the icon of the LockNote.exe file. I will explain the two methods below: 1. Pasting or Typing Text in a LockNote Window
- When you have entered all text, left click on the "File" menu item and select "Save As" (see the screen capture above).
- Then provide a file name (e.g., "Private") which will allow you to easily identify your file's contents (you can leave "Save as Type" blank as the file will be automatically saved with an .exe extension).
- Next you will be prompted for a password.
- Create a secure password or use the free password generator, both of which I addressed in my previous post (even though LockNote uses AES 256 bit encryption, the security of your information is contingent upon the strength of your password).
- Now your text will be encrypted within a LockNote.exe file (that is, the LockNote application and encrypted text are now contained within the password-protected .exe file).
- To open the encrypted LockNote file, just click on the Private.exe file (or whatever name you gave to the .exe file) and enter your password.
2. Dragging and Dropping .txt Files LockNote.exe's Icon
- If you have a text file (.txt) you want to encrypt, just drag the file over the icon of the LockNote.exe application.
- You will then be asked if you want to convert this file, and if you agree, will be prompted to provide a new secure password to encrypt the document. (and the encrypted file will be automatically saved as an exe file preceded by the name of your original .txt file).
- If you have more than one .txt file and you want to combine the contents into just one Locknote.exe file, you will first have to merge all of your text files into one (combined) .txt file. You can copy and paste the contents of each of your text files into a master file or use a free application such as TXTcollector to easily combine an entire folder (and optionally, subfolders) of .txt files into one .txt file (with a separator and the file name between each file, if you so choose). TXTcollector, which runs on Windows 95 to Vista, can be downloaded from: http://bluefive.pair.com
Solutions for Changing a Text File's Encoding If you have encrypted a .txt file to an .exe file and after providing the password to open the .exe file you find the text unreadable, you can either copy/paste the text (from your .txt file) into a LockNote window or encode your .txt file in Windows ANSI (Windows 1252) using an Open-Source (freeware) text editor such as Notepad++, which is available for download at: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm E-mailing an Encrypted LockNote File As explained above, all encrypted text contained with a LockNote file will have an exe extension by default. In order to prevent your (LockNote) exe file from being blocked by certain servers (due to exe files carrying viruses), I recommend that you do the following:
- Compress/pack your password-protected LockNote.exe within a Zip archive (or whatever archive format your Windows recipient desires) using a freeware program such as 7-Zip.
- If you are using Gmail, for example, to send (and/or your recipient will be using Gmail to receive your LockNote attachment), an executable (exe) file will be blocked even if contained within a Zip (or similar) archive. As a work around, you can rename the .exe by right clicking the LockNote .exe file, select rename and change the file's extension from .exe to .jpg (with your cursor over the file, pressing F2 will also allow you to easily rename the file).
- Once you have successfully e-mailed the LockNote attachment, provide (e.g., via phone, fax or Skype but not through e-mail) your intended recipient with the password to open the encrypted file and of course advise the recipient to change the file extension back to exe from jpg if you re-named the exe file to e-mail (before attempting to open the encrypted LockNote file with the provided password).
For further information about how a non profit organization can develop a productive virtual volunteering program through the use of appropriate technology, please visit this Online Volunteering Resource.
