Transition to the Use of Cryptocontainers

Transition to the Use of Cryptocontainers

In this chapter, I want to talk about the practice of using encryption to protect data. If you find it difficult to understand the term cryptcontainer, think of it as "a securely encrypted folder with a password where you can store and edit files." A cryptcontainer is a secure safe within your computer.

This topic is specifically placed in the second paragraph because later we will discuss the creation and use of cryptcontainers, and you should immediately consider transitioning to storing all your valuable data in cryptcontainers.

I will share my experience of starting to use cryptcontainers, and you can set up the operation of cryptcontainers on your computer or mobile device based on my experience.

Like many of you, I had my files organized in folders. I always tried to keep my computer organized: I had a "Work" folder with many subfolders, a "Study" folder with educational materials, and various folders with photos, videos, and all sorts of junk. There was, of course, a XXX folder, prudently renamed to "Lectures." The total volume of files was about 112 GB.

When transitioning to the use of cryptcontainers, I divided the files into three groups. The first group included files that are very valuable to me but that I do not use daily. The second group included important files that I use every day for work or study. The third group included all sorts of junk that I didn't even think to protect and moved into a cryptcontainer just for the sake of overall order.

There is one general rule: the fewer files you have in a cryptcontainer, the better it is from a security standpoint. Let me explain why: when you mount a cryptcontainer that contains ten files, you are granting access to all ten because of one. Ideally, there should be a separate cryptcontainer for each file, but in practice, this is an unattainable utopia.

When files are in an unmounted cryptcontainer, they are securely protected; whether a trojan is dropped onto your computer or a forensic analysis is conducted after breaking down the door, all of this is useless with a strong password. Unless, of course, you reveal it yourself, or it is saved in a txt document on your desktop. We will discuss methods of cracking cryptcontainers in detail in the concluding paragraph.

I think it is worth explaining in more detail what a mounted cryptcontainer is. Imagine that a cryptcontainer is an encrypted folder with a password. You enter the password and use the files located there, then you close the folder, and access to the data requires the password again. In the state where you have already entered the password and access is open, a trojan program that has infiltrated your computer or a third party who has gained access to the computer also has access to the files.