How Does Cryptainer Work ?

Cryptainer is a disk as well as a file encryption package (for sending secure e-mail) built in one easy to use interface.

All your sensitive information is stored in the form of encrypted files in a special `volume' that disappears when you password protect it, thereby locking your files and folders. Any kind of file can be dragged and dropped into this volume, rendering it totally inaccessible by anyone but you.

Thus, even if your "vault" (volume file) is stolen or downloaded by anyone, it is not possible for them to read your data. Using encryption in Cryptainer (Blowfish at 448 bits and the AES at 256 bits), it would take more than the age of the universe for all the computers in the world working simultaneously to decipher an encrypted file.

The free, fully-functional Cryptainer LE version uses a 128-bit implementation of the powerful Blowfish algorithm. while the registered versions Cryptainer ME, Cryptainer PE and Cryptainer 5.0 offer a choice between a 448-bit implementation of Blowfish and a 256-bit implementation of AES (Rijndael). Cryptainer allows you to create as many vaults as you need, from 1 mb to as much as 50 GB thereby providing unlimited encrypted storage. You can even load up to 4 of these vaults at a time on your PC.

Technically, it is an "on-the-fly" encryption system. Data is stored encrypted, but when it is requested by any application, it gets decrypted on the fly. Conversely, unencrypted data to be stored is encrypted instantaneously and then stored. The Cryptainer system mounts a special file (Volume file - the Vault) to create a "Virtual Drive" that appears to applications and users like any other physical drive. Any data that the user attempts to write to this drive is intercepted by Cryptainer, encrypted, and written to the volume file. Attempts to read from this volume are also intercepted, and the relevant data is read by Cryptainer from the volume file, decrypted, and presented to the application reading the data.

Dismounting the Cryptainer "Virtual Drive" ensures that data cannot be read or written. All data is stored encrypted within the "container". As far as Windows is concerned, there is a 'new' disk that has suddenly appeared. When the program exits or the volume is unmounted, the file system stays encrypted and there is absolutely no way anyone can access the data without the password.