With hackers and some government agencies spying into your personal digital life, it is a wise step to use file encryption software to hide your intimate and private files from the snooping eyes. The free software Silver Key can help you keep your private data private by encrypting your files or shredding them securely. It is actually designed to send files securely over the internet by encrypting them first. This way even if a middleman accesses them, they are encrypted and cannot be opened by the hackers. It allows the creation of executable parcels so that the party receiving the files has no need of install the Silver Key software on their end.
You can download the Silver Key from the Kryptel software website. Silver Key is available as a setup installer package as well as a USB portable version. After the installation of Silver Key software in Windows, you can double-click on the Silver Key desktop icon which shows up basic configuration settings window. In this window, you can choose the languages and File Explorer integration settings.
Now you are ready to use Silver Key. In order to create a parcel (encrypted file), you can right-click on any target file and select Create Parcel from the context menu. This would create a .SK file after you supply the encryption password. You can send this .SK file to anyone over the internet without the feat of being intercepted. If the receiving party does not have the Silver Key installed, then you can also create an executable parcel by selecting Create EXE Parcel from the context menu. You can also shred a file (delete it irrecoverably) using the same context-menu.
If you have installed Silver Key and you receive an .SK file, then you can simply double-click on it to decrypt it after entering the correct password. You can also right-click on it and select Decrypt Parcel to decrypt it. You can also verify a parcel (encrypted file) by selecting Verify Parcel from the context menu. The verification checks the parcel for integrity to see whether it has been altered.
Launching Silver Key from the desktop shortcut allows you to customize it through the settings section. Here you can choose the languages, file explorer context menu, choose icons for the encrypted files etc. You can also choose whether to shred original file after creating a parcel, allow double file extensions (many antivirus products won’t like this), choose a cipher engine and more.
In the paid version of Silver Key, you are offered more customizations like signing the encrypted parcel with a digital signature (to verify its integrity), choosing multiple shredding phases (in free version, only 1 pass shredding is done) and selecting custom cipher settings.
Conclusion: The Silver Key is a simple, fast and portable tool to encrypt your sensitive files so that you can send them to your friends or co-workers without the fear of being intercepted by hackers. It uses industry strength AES 256 bit cipher giving strong encryption at your avail. It also has a basic file shredder that can delete your files securely.
You can download Silver Key from http://www.kryptel.com/products/silverkey.php.