
                              ķ
                                             
                                ENCRYPT.EXE  
                                             
                              ͼ

                               10 March, 1994
                                          
                                  11:06 PM
       
       The program  ENCRYPT.EXE is  my finest  effort to  date! It  is
       "user friendly,"  has several  "escape hatches," checks the key
       strokes that  you enter  much more  carefully  than  the  usual
       QuickBASIC commands, and... encrypts files.
       
       I -should-  now regale you with a long and wandering text piece
       about "Secrecy"  or... give  you the  text piece about Computer
       Viruses. And...  of  course  there  are  the  two  half-written
       adventures of  my partner  in crime  "JR," and  me; and the one
       about my college friend "Ham." Ham owned a fire engine. Or... I
       could tell  you about  Sidney the  architect; or  Bruno the car
       mechanic. Or the time we... but... later... I am sort of burned
       out right now after making ENCRYPT.EXE.
       
       Actually not  burned out as much as -pleased-. ENCRYPT.EXE is a
       real hot-dog  file encrypter  that is  sooooooo very  simple it
       boggles the  imagination. Compared  to the  stuff that  I  have
       downloaded from  BBSs it  looks like  a child's  toy, but looks
       maybe deceiving.
       
       Now... if  you are a -real- programmer, and you have downloaded
       some of  my stuff, you know I can't do complicated "code." Yes,
       you are  right, this encrypting formula is very simple. You can
       duplicate it  with four  lines of  QuickBASIC code.  When I get
       around to  it, I  will upload  the source  code to  the MSBASIC
       Forum on  CompuServe so that my fellow bit twisters can see how
       -dumb- the code is.
       
       But for  anybody but  a demon  hacker, once  you encrypt a file
       with ENCRYPT.EXE, I don't think any FBI agent could decode your
       file. He  (or she)  would have to send it back to the mainframe
       in Washington  for  "de-encryption"  and  that  computer  could
       decode it in .... Oh.... about six seconds.
       
       But for  us ordinary  mortals who  carry  diskettes  of  fairly
       important information...  we have  gnawing fears. Fears that if
       we lose  the "Employee's Evaluation CheckSheet" or the "Payroll
       Cost Analysis  for 1994,"  or the  "Proposed  Personnel  Layoff
       Schedules,"  and   somebody  -besides-   our  boss  finds  that
       diskette, we are in deep, well... trouble!
       
       So ENCRYPT.EXE  can fill  a simple need of keeping confidential
       files.... well...  confidential! I  know, I know, you're afraid
       that once  you encrypt  something, it  is gone  forever. It may
       never  be   recovered  -or-   the  de-encryption   process   is
       irreversible. Those  are my  fears  exactly!  Well...  I  won't
       promise you that can't happen, all I can say is that as long as
       you remember your PASSWORD -precisely-, it's a long shot.
       
       Oh... yeah,  before I forget, if you're a lawyer... ENCRYPT.EXE
       probably won't  work for  you... ENCRYPT.EXE  can sense  if you
       distrust it.
       
       Let's spend  a little time talking about Passwords. ENCRYPT.EXE
       uses the  password you  enter to encrypt the file. The password
       you enter  is "case sensitive." That means that upper and lower
       case letters  are treated as DIFFERENT symbols and any -spaces-
       you put in the password are -also- part of the password.
       
       Using just  three letters (let's use my initials, JRD), you can
       make eight (8) -different- passwords, let me show you:
       
       1. JRD
       2. JRd
       3. Jrd
       4. JrD
       4. jRD
       5. jrD
       7. jRd
       8. jrd
       
       The formula  for  calculating  the  number  of  different  case
       sensitive passwords is:
       
         Two to the power of the number of letters of the Password.
       
       "JRD" contains three (3) letters. The formula is 2^3 (the caret
       ^ is  the QuickBASIC  symbol for "power"), or 2 times 2 times 2
       (2*2*2) or eight (8) different passwords.
       
       What's the  message? Make  your password  -LONG-  but  easy  to
       remember. If  you were  me (God  forbid!) you could use my name
       as:
       
       JOHNRDEPALMA,
       
       That's thirteen letters or 8192 possible combinations. If I was
       feeling frisky, I could use:
       
       JoHnRDePaLmA
       
       Or....
       
       NowIsTheTimeForAllGoodMenToComeToTheAidofTheirCountry
       
       Now... that  last one  is a hummer, containing 53 letters which
       makes Hmmmmm.... 9,007,199,254,740,992 possible combinations.
       
       Even if  some one  guessed you  used part  of your  name,  they
       couldn't unencrypt  a file made with ENCRYPT.EXE without typing
       about eight-thousand  variations of a thirteen letter password.
       And then  only be  able to  de-encrypt the file IF they had the
       exact -spelling- of the password!
       
       So, take a file, any file, text, executable, spreadsheet, small
       large,  whatever...   load  and   follow  the   directions   in
       ENCRYPT.EXE. Save your encrypted file with the same name as the
       file but  with the  extension *.ENC, 'so you can recognize that
       it is a weird and encrypted file.
       
       At the  end of  ENCRYPT.EXE, you  will be  asked if you want to
       repeat the  process, type "Y" or hit {Enter}. Find the file you
       encrypted and highlight it. Now... "encrypt" it AGAIN using the
       extension *.UNE;  making very,  very (very!)  sure you  use the
       same and exact password as you did the first time.
       
       Now you  can quit  ENCRYPT.EXE and  check out  the these  three
       (don't forget  the original  file you started with) files. Your
       original file  will be  EXACTLY like  the one  with  the  *.UNE
       extension. The one with the *.ENC is encrypted.
       
       What's the message? To encrypt a file:
       
       1.      Save the  original  file  with  an  extension  you  can
               remember (I use *.ENC).
       
       2.      "Encrypt" -the  encrypted file-  a second time, give it
               an unencrypted extension (I use *.UNE)
       
       MAKE SURE YOU USE THE SAME =EXACT= PASSWORD BOTH TIMES!
       
       Has the  little candle  errrr.... -light-! gone on in your head
       yet?  First   pass  with  ENCRYPT.EXE  encrypts,  second  pass,
       de-encrypts.
       
       You can  safely keep  ENCRYPT.EXE  on  any  diskette  with  the
       encrypted files,  as unless  someone has your LONG password, it
       won't do them any good.
       
       Again... ENCRYPT.EXE  encrypts a file the first time around and
       -DE-ENCRYPTS- it the second time!  What could be simpler?
       
       So... I'm goin' it's been a long week, see ya.
       
       John De Palma on CompuServe 76076,571
