how to scruly store files for download Protect the sensitive files on your computer. Intruders may be able to read or modify your data over the Internet, remotely. If they manage to get hold of your device, they may be able to read or modify your data in person. It is always best to have several layers of defense against these possibilities. Encrypting files saved on your machine is one important form of protection. Encryption is a way for software to scramble your information using advanced mathematics, leaving you and only you with the key to unscramble it (in the form of a password or encryption key). So encrypting your device is like keeping your information in a locked safe with a combination that only you know. Take the following steps to protect data stored on your devices. Consider deleting old data instead of storing it. Why? Storing confidential data can be a risk for you and for the people you work with. _Encryption reduces this risk but does not eliminate it. The first step to protecting sensitive information is to reduce how much of it you keep around. Unless you have a good reason to store a particular file, or a particular category of information within a file, you should simply delete it (see How to destroy sensitive information for more information about how to do this securely)._. Consider encrypting some of your files. Why? You might find it useful to leave non-sensitive files on your device un-encrypted, so that if your device is searched, your device does not look suspicious because it contains ordinary, everyday files and communications. In this case, encrypt only some of your files. Linux, Mac, and Windows. Download VeraCrypt https://veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html How to use VeraCrypt https://veracrypt.fr/en/Documentation.html. Consider whether encryption is illegal or suspicious in your jurisdiction. Why? Encryption is illegal in some countries. If it is illegal in your country, downloading, installing or using encryption software might be considered a crime. Police, military, or intelligence services might use your use of encryption software as a pretext to investigate your activities or persecute your organization. Regardless of what is actually inside your encrypted_ volumes, or regardless of whether or not is legal in your area, they might cast suspicion on you for using encryption. So investigate how law enforcement has treated encryption in your area, and think carefully about whether tools whose sole purpose is encrypting your data are appropriate for your situation. If encryption is illegal in your region, consider these alternatives: Store only non-sensitive information. Use steganography. Steganography is any method of disguising sensitive information so that it appears to be something else, in order to avoid drawing unwanted attention. There are tools to help with this, but using them properly requires very careful preparation, and you still risk incriminating yourself in the eyes of anyone who learns what tool you have used. Use a system of code words. Store to an encrypted removable drive. Store to an encrypted cloud account. Consider encrypting your whole device. Why? If your device is lost, stolen, or seized by people who want to look at your files and communications, you will need protection to stop them. Encrypting your whole device protects it. Decide whether to use VeraCrypt or something built in to encrypt your whole device. Why? On desktops and laptops, you have options. Consider whether your device's built-in disk encryption is enough protection, or whether an additional solution, VeraCrypt, would offer better protection. All devices. Be aware that disk encryption only works if your device is powered all the way off. If it is on, and all you need to do is enter a password to get to your files and communications, someone who takes your device may find it easy to get in. Android. iOS. How to use VeraCrypt https://veracrypt.fr/en/Documentation.html You can only configure full-disk encryption when you are installing Ubuntu on your laptop for the first time, so you may need to re-install. Before you do so: Back up all of your data. Once Ubuntu is installed, it will replace all data stored on your previous operating system. Plug your computer into a power source so that it does not switch off during the installation process. Stay connected to the internet so that you can get the latest updates while you install Ubuntu. If you are not connected to the internet you will be asked to select a wireless network, if available. Create a bootable USB stick. View Ubuntu's guide for the device where you are creating it: How to use VeraCrypt https://veracrypt.fr/en/Documentation.html How to use VeraCrypt https://veracrypt.fr/en/Documentation.html. Consider whether to make a hidden volume. Why? When you encrypt your information, nobody else may be able to read it, but someone might still be able to see that the encrypted data is there, and that you have taken steps to protect it. That adversary might then try to intimidate, blackmail, interrogate, or torture you to get you to unlock that encryption. VeraCrypt gives you the opportunity to avoid this risk by making a "hidden volume." You open VeraCrypt's hidden volume by providing a different password from the one you normally use. Even if a technically sophisticated intruder gains access to your "unhidden" encrypted files, they will be unable to prove hidden ones exist. VeraCrypt disguises your encrypted information as other, less sensitive, hidden data (like music files or ordinary documents), so it does not look unusual. It is generally considered impossible to tell from analysis whether or not an encrypted volume contains a hidden volume. So if an intruder steals your key, takes you to court, or intimidates you into giving up your password, they will find convincing 'decoy' material, but not the information you are protecting. This is like having a locked safe with a "false bottom:" only you know that your safe has a hidden compartment. This allows you to deny that you are keeping any secrets beyond what you already gave your adversary, and might help protect you in situations where you must reveal a password. This gives you a chance to escape a potentially dangerous situation. Know, however, that this is less useful if just being caught with a safe in your office might arouse suspicion. Be warned your adversary might know VeraCrypt can hide information in this way; there is no guarantee they will give up if you reveal your decoy password. But plenty of people use VeraCrypt without hidden volumes. You must also make sure you do not accidentally reveal your hidden volume by leaving it open or allowing other applications to create shortcuts to the files that it contains. Protect your encrypted drive. Why? Following the "locked safe" metaphor, no matter how sturdy your safe is, it won't do you a whole lot of good if you leave the door open. Follow these steps to protect your encrypted drive. Unmount. When your VeraCrypt volume is 'mounted'--in other words, whenever you can access the contents yourself-- your data may be vulnerable. Keep it unmounted when you are not actively reading or modifying the files inside it. If you keep an encrypted volume on a USB memory stick, remember that just removing the USB stick may not immediately disconnect the volume. You need to "unmount" the drive first, then disconnect the external drive or memory stick, then remove the device. Practice this until you can do it easily, so you will be ready in case of a raid or other emergency. Disconnect the drive: Don’t access your encrypted drive on a device you don’t trust. Use trusted dealers and repair shops. Why? When you get a pre-owned device, or send your device to be repaired, it offers adversaries an opportunity to look at your files. Pre-owned phones may unfortunately carry malware or spyware, so if possible, it might be better to buy a new device. Repair shops have also sometimes been known to spy on devices or sell their data. Be sure to choose a repair shop you trust. How to use Secure File Storage. Secure File Storage allows Premium users to keep important documents at their fingertips, without having to worry about losing them or someone getting unwanted access to them. Secure File Storage allows you to use the same powerful encryption and security infrastructure used to protect your passwords and Secure Notes, but now to encrypt and store documents within your Dashlane app. Wherever you have access to your devices, you now have access to those files. And as your encrypted data is backed up by Dashlane, you never have to worry about losing your data. Contents. How to store, download, or delete your documents in the desktop application. To upload a file to your Dashlane in the desktop application, you need to create or open an existing Secure Note to which you want to attach your file. Then click on "Attach a file" on the upper-right of the note, which prompts you to select the file on your device that you wish to upload. Once you have attached a file to a Secure Note, they are listed under the "Attached files" tab in the note. Once you have saved your note, the icon in your list of Secure Notes will show a small paperclip to indicate that the note now has an attachment. For example, if you were traveling abroad, you might create a note called "Travel Docs" and attach to it scans of your passport or other important documents. To download a file, move your mouse over the entry for that file and click on the option to "Download" that appears on the right. You will be prompted to choose where to place the file on your device. To delete a file, move your mouse over the entry for that file and click on the option to "Delete" that appears on the far right. Be aware that if you delete a Secure Note, you will delete the files attached to it. Be sure you want to delete your files before doing so, as this cannot be undone. Please note that for security reasons, we currently do not allow you to preview your attachments within Dashlane. To view them you must download them. Note also that for now you cannot share Secure Notes with attachments. Finally, if you are no longer a Premium user and have securely-stored documents, you will not be forced to delete them but cannot add new ones. How to store, download, or delete your documents on your iOS mobile device. To store a secure file on your iOS device, create or open the existing Secure Note to which you want to attach your file and tap the paperclip icon in the menu bar at the bottom of the screen to open the page that lists the files attached to the note. There, tap the white plus sign in the upper right-hand corner. This will prompt you to select the file you wish to upload. Once you have attached a file to a note, the icon for that note will show a small paperclip to indicate that it has an attachment. To open or delete a file, tap on the file in the list of files attached to the Secure Note. If you choose open you will be prompted to choose where to display or download the file. For security reasons, we currently do not allow you to preview your attachments directly within Dashlane. If you choose delete you will be asked to confirm, as deletions cannot be undone. Note that for now, you cannot share Secure Notes with attachments. Finally, if you are no longer on a Premium or trial plan and previously created secure files, note that you may keep those files but simply cannot add new ones. How to store, download, or delete your documents on your Android mobile device. To store a secure file on Android, first, create or select the Secure Note to which you want to attach your file an tap on the paperclip icon at the top of the screen, or else the small, round information icon on the right side of the screen, to open the page that lists the files attached to the note. There, tap the green circle with a plus sign on the lower right. This will prompt you to select the file you wish to upload. Once you have attached a file to a note, the icon for that note will show a small paperclip to indicate that it has an attachment. To open a file, first, download it by tapping on the file. The file will show a small green circle with a white checkmark to show it has been downloaded. Then tap again, and choose where you will open the file. For security reasons, we currently do not allow you to preview your attachments directly within Dashlane. To delete a file, tap and hold the file you wish to delete to select it, then tap the trash can icon at the top of the screen. Please be sure you wish to delete before doing so, as deletions cannot be undone. Note that for now, you cannot share Secure Notes with attachments. Finally, if you are no longer on a Premium or trial plan and previously created secure files, note that you may keep those files but simply cannot add new ones. How much storage am I allowed, and what kind of documents can I store? Dashlane allows you to store up to 1 GB of files within your account. Note that individual files are currently limited to less than 50 MB in size. Secure Document Storage allows you to store the most common document and media files, and others as well. Accepted file types are: The Top 10 Tips for Securing Your Data. With the use of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and netbooks, most of us do everyday tasks online, such as purchasing goods and banking. However, if we don’t secure our personal data on our computers and online, we could be asking for serious trouble. The following 10 articles are the top methods we’ve covered for securing files and personal information both online and off, securing your Wi-Fi network, protecting website login information and passwords and other offline data. Image by xkcd, obviously. Encrypt a Hard Drive or USB Flash Drive Using TrueCrypt. One of the best options for securing files on your computer and on external drives is a free open source disk encryption utility called TrueCrypt. It works with Windows, Linux, and Mac and allows you to encrypt an entire drive, partition, or flash drive or create an encrypted file store in which you can store sensitive data files and take them with you. The following articles show you how to use TrueCrypt in Windows and on the Mac and how to protect a flash drive using TrueCrypt. Securely Store Data on the Go. If you need to store files securely and take them with you, TrueCrypt allows you to do this with encrypted volumes. However, you must have administrator access on whatever computer you use to access your TrueCrypt encrypted volume. The following article describes another option, called FreeOTFE, that allows you to store files in an encrypted volume that can be accessed using a portable version of the program that can be used without administrative privileges. Encrypt Personal Information in a Simple Executable Text File. Steganos LockNote is a small, simple method for securely storing chunks of information in files. For example, if you purchase a download-only program, you can use LockNote to store the product key or serial number that goes with that program in the same folder, so you always know where to find it. The following article shows you how simple it is to use LockNote to easily and securely store bits of information and take it with you. Hide Personal Information Inside an Image File. Another method of securing data is to hide it inside an image file. The following article shows you how to use a free tool, called Free File Camouflage, to hide a file inside an image file protected with a password. The image file is still an image file. The only thing that changes is the size of the file. Secure Your Linux PC. If you’re using Ubuntu Linux on your PC, you can encrypt your Ubuntu installation partition to protect your data from hackers, nosy friends and family, or other intruders. The following article shows you how to encrypt a partition into which you can install Ubuntu, how to encrypt a folder, and how to create a hidden volume using TrueCrypt. Securely Sync Your Files Using Dropbox and SecretSync. Have you wanted to use cloud storage, but have been hesitant to because of the security risks? Dropbox is a leading option for cloud storage. It’s simple to use and affordably priced. However, Dropbox users do not have access to the encryption keys for their accounts. Dropbox can decrypt your information and, for example, hand the files over to the government, if asked. You can manually encrypt your files using TrueCrypt before uploading them to Dropbox, but SecretSync provides an automated process. SecretSync locally encrypts your files before they are synced to your Dropbox account. The following article shows you how to set up Dropbox and SecretSync. Securely Delete Your Data. Part of keeping your data secure is making sure deleted data is permanently gone. You might think that once you delete a file it’s gone. However, deleting a file only removes the reference to the file in the file system table. The file still exists on disk and can potentially be recovered. To permanently delete a file, you must overwrite it with other data, making it unreadable. The following article describes several tools available out there that provide methods of securely deleting files. Some of the tools are portable, allowing you to stay safe when using files on public computers. Securing Your Wi-Fi Network. Securing your Wi-Fi network is an important part of keeping your data secure. If your network is not secure, people can access your network and get to the files on your computer, as well as hijack your internet connection and possibly use it to do illegal things. The following articles show you how to secure your home Wi-Fi network against intrusion and also how to configure your router to support a secure, encrypted tunnel between your laptop and your home router so you can safely surf the internet from public Wi-Fi spots. Protecting Login Information Using LastPass. Most of us have many user names and passwords for the various sites we regularly log into. How do you remember all of them? LastPass is a great option for securely storing your login information for websites, as well as other personal information. You can also use LastPass to enter your login information on websites automatically. The following articles show you how to use LastPass to store and use your private information, how to download and view information stored in your LastPass account offline, and how to install LastPass into the Opera browser. Protecting Passwords and Other Data Offline Using KeePass. Storing private data in LastPass is useful, especially for logging into websites automatically and securely. However, if you want to be able to store many kinds of private information securely and take it with you offline, KeePass is a great option. It is portable and allows you to securely store different types of private information. The LastPass Portable tool mentioned in the previous tip, only allows you to view your information. If you change anything, the changes are lost once you exit LastPass Portable and you can’t upload any changes to your LastPass account. KeePass allows you to add, remove, and change your private information and keep it secure offline. Now that we showed you how to keep your private data secure, here are some tips about creating secure passwords for your online accounts, home Wi-Fi network, and other places where a secure password is crucial. Windows security is preventing file downloads. This problem is officially interfering with my business. Any downloaded file with an EXE extension is automatically canceled and a little yellow window tells me that window security will not allow me to open the file. How do I turn off window security completely? I do not need the nanny service. I initially tried correcting things based on information in this site. The internet zone in explorer is set to medium. Considering that I do not use explorer, I certainly do not appreciate having it monitor a downloads directory it should not be concerned with. My work around for this problem has been to have my colleague e-mail me files I need to download. That is a major time waster but it has been a decent bandage for the problem. System restore does not complete successfully anymore so it's not I can just hit rewind. Store Private Files Securely Using a Portable File Encryption Tool. If you work on multiple computers, you probably cart your data and portable programs around on a USB flash drive. Wouldn’t it be handy to have an easy-to-use portable method of storing and accessing your private files? We have previously shown you how to use TrueCrypt to protect data on a USB flash drive. When you run TrueCrypt in Traveler Disk mode, you need to have administrator rights on the computer you are using. We found another program, called FreeOTFE, which also creates encrypted volumes similar to TrueCrypt. FreeOTFE offers a portable mode, like TrueCrypt, which temporarily installs the necessary drivers, and requires administrator rights to run. However, the advantage of FreeOTFE over TrueCrypt is that FreeOTFE offers their FreeOTFE Explorer program that does not require administrator rights to run. It does not install any drivers. FreeOTFE Explorer is a more limited version of FreeOTFE that allows you to access the files in your .vol file, but it does not assign a drive letter to your volume. Any files accessed in a volume using FreeOTFE Explorer must be extracted first before opening. In this article, we show you how to use the main FreeOTFE program (we just call it FreeOTFE). The FreeOTFE Explorer program is fairly easy to figure out. You can use both versions of FreeOTFE, interchangeably. The .vol files you create for storing your files can be opened by both FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer. Download FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer from freeotfe.org. To run FreeOTFE, you must have administrator rights. Right-click on the FreeOTFE.exe file and select Run as administrator from the popup menu. NOTE: If you don’t have administrator rights, use the FreeOTFE Explorer program. If the User Account Control dialog box displays, click Yes to continue. NOTE: You may not see this dialog box, depending on your User Account Control settings . FreeOTFE temporarily installs drivers to run. Click Yes on the Confirm dialog box to install these drivers. NOTE: When you exit the program you are prompted to uninstall the drivers. No permanent changes are made to the computer you are using. If you click No, choosing not to run FreeOTFE in portable mode, the following dialog box displays telling you where to find instructions for installing the drivers. FreeOTFE cannot run without these drivers (FreeOTFE Explorer can). If you did not run FreeOTFE using the Run as administrator command, the following dialog box displays. FreeOTFE opens; however, you cannot perform any actions in the program. Exit the program (select Exit from the File menu) and run the program again using the Run as administrator command. Once FreeOTFE is open, click New to create a new volume file in which you can securely store your private files. The Volume Creation Wizard displays. Click Next to continue. Select whether you want to create a volume file (which is portable) or whether you want to encrypt a partition or an entire disk. For this example, we created a Volume file. Select Volume file and click Next. To specify a name for your volume file, click Browse. Navigate to where you want to save your volume file, enter a name for the file in the File name edit box and click Save. We chose to store our volume file in a Volumes folder in the same folder as the FreeOTFE program. This makes it easy to take the program and your volume files with you on a USB flash drive, as we will illustrate later in this article. The full path to the volume file displays in the Volume filename box. Click Next to continue. Enter the desired size for the volume in the edit box and select whether you want the size to be in bytes, KB, MB, GB, or TB from the drop-down list. The next screen displays the available security options. If you’re not sure which ones to select, just accept the default options. They are usually sufficient for most users. Click Next. When creating the new volume, FreeOTFE uses some random data for the items listed on the screen. By default, Microsoft CryptoAPI is selected. If you also want to generate additional random data using your mouse. select Mouse movement. To save time, for this example, we did not choose the Mouse movement option. It takes a while to generate the random data using that method. However, for greater security, we recommend you take the time and use the Mouse movement option. Click Next. If you chose to generate random data by moving your mouse, the following screen displays. To generate the data, wiggle your mouse around in the white box on the screen until the total number of random bits required (listed below the box) have been generated. Click Next when you are finished. Enter a password for the volume once in the Password box and again in the Confirm password box. DO NOT press Enter after entering your password in either box. That will add Enter as a character in your password. Click Next to continue. A summary of the settings to be used for the new volume are listed on the next screen. To mount the volume immediately after it is created, select the Mount volume after creation check box. For this example, we recommend you select this option. You can also specify a specific drive letter to always be used (when available) for this volume. To do this, click Advanced. Click the Drive Letter tab on the Advanced Options dialog box. Select a drive letter from the drop-down list. It is a good idea to select a drive letter that is unlikely to be used on most computers, if you want to use the same drive letter every time you mount the volume. We used E: as an example, but a letter later in the alphabet might be a better choice. Click OK when you have chosen a drive letter. You are returned to the summary screen on the Volume Creation Wizard. Click Finish to create your new volume. A dialog box displays when the volume has been created. You are advised to format the volume, just as you would a regular drive, and to overwrite the volume’s free space before using the volume to store files. Click OK. To format the volume, select the volume in the list on the Free OTFE main window, and select Format from the Tools menu. The Format dialog box displays. Accept the default options and enter a Volume label for the volume. Click Start. A warning dialog box displays telling you that all data will be erased. Because there is no data in this volume, yet, this is fine. Click OK. Click OK on the dialog box that displays telling you the formatting process is complete. You are returned to the Format dialog box. Click Close. To overwrite the free space of the volume with random data, select Overwrite free space from the Tools menu. The Select Type of Overwrite dialog box displays. Select the type of random data you want to use. We selected the more secure Encrypted data option and selected the AES (256 bit XTS) option from the drop-down list. That is a commonly used secure cypher method. Click OK. If you chose the Encrypted data option, the Random Data Generation dialog box displays. Again, to generate random data, wiggle your mouse in the white box until 512 bits have been generated. Your progress is listed below the box. When the required bits have been generated, click OK. A Confirm dialog box displays warning you that the overwriting process may take a long time if you created a large volume. Because our volume is only 100 MB, it shouldn’t take long. Click Yes. A dialog box displays showing you approximately how much time remains in the overwriting process. When the overwriting process is finished, click OK on the confirmation dialog box that displays. If you chose to mount your new volume after it was created, it is listed on the FreeOTFE window. The volume displays in the Hard Disk Drives section in Windows Explorer. You can double-click on it to access it like any other drive listed. NOTE: This is one area where FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer differs. FreeOTFE Explorer does not mount volumes using drive letters. You have to mount the drive in the FreeOTFE Explorer program. You can copy and paste files into the volume, or drive and you can open files in your volume and edit them like you would files on any other drive. NOTE: Another difference between FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer is that you cannot copy and paste files or open files directly from within the volume. To access files in a volume when using FreeOTFE Explorer, you must extract the files first. If you do this, we recommend that you securely delete the files you extracted once you import them back into your volume after making changes. To dismount a volume, “locking up” your files again, click Dismount. You may see a dialog box warning you that you must force dismount the volume. Make sure all Windows Explorer windows and other windows accessing the volume are closed and that all files in the volume are closed. If you have done this and you still get the warning, you should be alright to force a dismount. You can easily change the password and details for the volume. Before doing this, make sure the volume is dismounted. To change the password or details, select Change volume/keyfile password/details from the Tools menu. A wizard similar to the Volume Creation Wizard displays. Follow the instructions on each screen. To change options for FreeOTFE, select Options from the View menu. There are many options available on the Options dialog box allowing you to customize FreeOTFE. If you change settings from the defaults, it is a good idea to save your settings. We selected to save the settings to a File in FreeOTFE directory, so our settings will be available wherever we use FreeOTFE. If you have not selected an option to Save above settings to when you click OK to close the Options dialog box, the following Warning dialog box displays. If you indicate you want your settings to be persistent by clicking Yes, you are returned to the Options dialog box. Select an option for saving the settings and click OK again. The Options dialog box provides an option for associating the .vol files with FreeOTFE. However, when we tried this and then tried to double- click on a .vol file to mount it, the file was not listed in FreeOTFE. We had FreeOTFE open at the time, which is necessary so the drivers are loaded. Because this feature doesn’t seem to work well, we recommend you mount volumes using the Mount file button in FreeOTFE. Find your volume file on the Open dialog box, select it, and click Open. The Key Entry dialog box displays for you to enter your password to mount the volume. FreeOTFE allows you to also use a keyfile in addition to a password using the Create keyfile option on the Tools menu. If you decide to create a keyfile for your volume, use the … button to select your keyfile. You can also select a different drive letter using the Drive drop-down list. Click OK. A dialog box displays confirming the drive letter used when mounting your volume. Click OK. To easily copy FreeOTFE to your USB flash drive, select Copy FreeOTFE to USB drive from the Tools menu. NOTE: This is where it is convenient to have stored your volumes in the FreeOTFE directory. They will be copied along with the program to the USB flash drive. The Copy FreeOTFE to USB Drive dialog box displays. If you have more than one USB flash drive connected to your computer, choose which one to use from the Drive drop-down list. If you insert another one at this point, click Refresh to add it to the list. If you choose the default path, FreeOTFE will be copied to a FreeOTFE directory on the root of your flash drive. To select a different location, use the … button. You can choose to automatically run FreeOTFE when you insert your USB flash drive into a computer by selecting the Setup autorun.inf to launch FreeOTFE when drive inserted check box. You can also hide the autorun.inf file. We did not choose these options, as we have a lot of other data and portable programs on our USB flash drive and may not always want to run FreeOTFE immediately. When you click OK, the progress of the copying of the program files displays, and a dialog box displays telling you when the files have been copied. To close FreeOTFE, select Exit from the File menu. You are prompted to shutdown portable mode before the program exits. This uninstalls the drivers that were temporarily installed. Click Yes to uninstall the drivers. Using both FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer, you can easily take your private files with you and access them on any Windows computer, whether you have administrative rights on that computer or not. There is a PDF manual available for download for both programs that will help you with the features we did not cover here.