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- Interscope BlackBox(tm) 4.0
-
- Copyright ⌐ 1996-2001 Interscope Ltd.
- All rights reserved.
-
-
- Contents of this file:
-
- 1. Introduction
- 2. System requirements
- 3. Installation
- 4. Usage
- 5. Uninstallation
- 6. Known issues
- 7. Registration
- 8. Miscellaneous
-
-
- 1. Introduction
-
- Interscope BlackBox is a security suite designed for Windows 95, Windows 98,
- Windows Millenium, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 family of platforms, offering
- fast and easy-to-use solutions for data encryption, secure data distribution
- and safe data disposal (wiping).
-
- Interscope BlackBox features two types of data encryption: file and text encryption.
-
- File encryption is tightly integrated into the Windows shell. This makes encrypting/decrypting
- files as easy as right-clicking them and entering a password. Even better,
- Interscope BlackBox can maintain a security set for you - essentially a list of
- sensitive files and folders that you must protect. Your security set logically binds
- together all your protected data, possibly spread across several folders and drives.
- You will be able to lock or unlock all of them with a right-click and a password.
-
- Text encryption means you can encrypt any text message or document (e.g. the text on
- the clipboard, the text in any window on your screen or any Microsoft Word document).
- This is different from file encryption because the encrypted text is printable.
- You can process, store or send the encrypted text using the same tools and in the same way
- as you would the plain text. Such a feature is ideal for working with secure text in any
- of your current or future applications, without requiring a specific Interscope BlackBox
- plug-in to be built for them.
-
- For data distribution Interscope BlackBox can encrypt and compress your files into
- self-extracting archives. Such archives can contain - and restore, of course - whole
- directory structures, so that you can organize your data better. This makes it an ideal
- distribution medium across insecure channels or connections (eg. the Internet). In adddition,
- Interscope BlackBox can protect your e-mail and is integrated into the two main
- Microsoft e-mail clients.
-
- Since deleting files from your drive is not secure - effectively leaving your data in a state
- in which it can be recovered easily - Interscope BlackBox can irreversibly destroy your data.
- You simply drag your files and folders to the Shredder icon on your desktop and you're done.
- And if that is not enough, BlakBox can also wipe the unused space on any of your drives,
- getting rid of any files you deleted from Windows Explorer or the remnants of any other software.
-
- Interscope BlackBox exposes an open security framework that lets users build their own preferred
- solutions, using modular security engines which they can plug-in into BlackBox. By default,
- Interscope BlackBox comes with a traditional 56-bit DES engine. Additional engines, as well as
- a free BlackBox SDK for developing custom encryption engine plug-ins, are available from
- our site. Please visit
- http://www.essentialdetails.com/blackbox/engines.asp
- http://www.essentialdetails.com/blackbox/sdk.asp
-
- Interscope BlackBox was designed to provide security against passive attacks, meaning that
- once the data is encrypted, it is secure. But you should make sure that the encryption/decryption
- is done in a "clean" environment (eg without keyboard watchers and the like). After the
- encryption/decryption is finished any relevant used memory and temporary file is wiped out
- before being released or deleted. So, we want to think it is secure enough for everyday use.
-
-
- 2. System requirements
-
- In order to run Interscope BlackBox you will need one of the following platforms
- and hardware resources:
-
- a) Windows 95 with DCOM installed
-
- 486 class computer
- 8 MBytes of RAM
- VGA monitor
- Serial mouse or other pointing device
-
- b) Windows 98/ME
-
- 486 class computer
- 16 MBytes of RAM
- VGA monitor
- Serial mouse or other pointing device
-
- c) Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or later
-
- Pentium class computer
- 32 MBytes of RAM
- VGA monitor
- Serial mouse or other pointing device
-
- d) Windows 2000
-
- Pentium II class computer
- 64 MBytes of RAM
- VGA monitor
- Serial mouse or other pointing device
-
- Some features require Internet access.
-
- You can download DCOM for Windows 95 from the Microsoft DCOM
- site at http://www.microsoft.com/com/dcom.asp.
-
-
- 3. Installation
-
- In order to install Interscope BlackBox you should follow these steps:
-
- a) If on NT, make sure you are logged in as a user with administrative privileges.
- b) If you have a previous version of Interscope BlackBox installed, uninstall
- it first by firing up the Add/Remove Programs control panel applet, selecting
- Interscope BlackBox and clicking Remove.
- c) Install Interscope BlackBox on your computer by running Setup.exe in
- the folder where your installation kit is, or by running the downloaded
- installation program, ibb4xxx-xx.exe.
- d) If you have a license for Interscope BlackBox 4.x, copy it in the folder
- where you installed Interscope BlackBox
- (usually C:\Program Files\Interscope BlackBox\4.0).
-
-
- 4. Usage
-
- Usage of Interscope BlackBox is very simple: you simply navigate to the files and/or
- folders you want to protect (encrypt), right-click them, select Encrypt... and then
- provide a password.
-
- Decrypting files goes in the same fashion: you right-click them, select Decrypt...
- and enter the password (assuming you know it) when prompted.
-
- Of course, Interscope BlackBox provides many other features besides this basic
- encryption/decryption. For a description of what's new see Version.txt and for help
- on the purpose and usage of the respective features consult the online help.
-
-
- 5. Uninstallation
-
- To uninstall Interscope BlackBox, go to the Add/Remove Programs control panel
- applet, select Interscope BlackBox 4.0 and click Remove. Alternatively, you can
- uninstall it from the Start Menu group the setup created when you installed
- Interscope BlackBox. Click Start, then Programs, then Interscope BlackBox,
- then Uninstall Interscope BlackBox.
-
-
- 6. Known issues
-
- Below is a list of known issues in this release of Interscope BlackBox. We are
- aware of there problems and are currently working to fix them. As soon as a fix
- is available it will be made public on our website.
-
- * The icons in context menus will not appear for shortcuts
- * After uninstalling, the shredder icon remains on the desktop and in the Send To menu
- * In Outlook Express encrypted messages are limited to 64 KBytes
-
-
- 7. Registration
-
- Please do not forget that Interscope BlackBox is a shareware program, and as so,
- if you like it we would like you to register your copy. See Order.txt for information
- on how to get a license for your copy of Interscope BlackBox.
-
-
- 8. Miscellaneous
-
- If you have any problems installing, using or uninstalling Interscope BlackBox
- or find any defects, you can send your questions and observations to
- BlackBox@essentialdetails.com or submit a defect report and we will try to have some answers
- for you and keep your feature requestests in mind when releasing a new version.
-
- To submit a defect report, go to the Start Menu group setup has created when you installed
- Interscope BlackBox and choose Submit Defect Report. This will send you to a defect report
- site where you can enter a description of the problem and then submit it to us.
-
- Our support team has prepared a list of most common questions together with answers
- and published them on the Interscope InstallMaster FAQ page at
- http://www.essentialdetails.com/support/faq.asp?blackbox.
- Please check out these FAQs before you ask for support.
-
- Interscope is working hard to further enhance this product, so if you want to be
- kept up to date with the latest development of Interscope BlackBox, we invite
- you to check back often to the Interscope BlackBox homepage at
- http://www.essentialdetails.com/BlackBox/ from where you can download new engines, the
- BlackBox engine development SDK and updates (as soon as they are released).
- You will also find here help, a FAQ collection and possible fixes.
-
- Your feedback is important to us, so please let us know what you think by filling
- out our online user survey at
- http://www.essentialdetails.com/feedback/survey_bb.asp
-
-
- Thank you,
- The Interscope BlackBox Team.
-
-