Cypherus is an incredibly easy to use encryption product that integrates seamlessly and automatically with your email on installation. When you first install Cypherus, the software will automatically attempt to determine your default email client. If you use Outlook Express 5.5 or higher, Netscape Communicator 4.7, Outlook 2000/XP or Eudora 3.05, 4.0 or 5, the product will engage the corresponding Cypherus email plug-in. For me it was Outlook Express and it all happened seamlessly.

Its central features incorporate secure email, secure file storage and unequivocal file shredding. In fact, the file shredder completely removes data from the hard disk to levels that exceed U.S. Department of Defense standards. In addition it provides a Key Manager, which serves as the storage nexus during your operation of the Cypherus program, storing everything from credit card PINs to your address book and accompanying passwords.

Almost every aspect of the Cypherus program stems from the crucial Cypherus Archive - special, secure containers created to safely hold your encrypted files, documents or other sensitive material. This enables you to label and store specific data and files securely, and email or transfer an archive to someone else. Files stored in a Cypherus archive are encrypted and effectively locked within an electronic vault and all data must be placed in an archive in order for it to be encrypted. Facilitating the practice of good file management, you can group related files together in an archive, or generate a new archive for each file you wish to encrypt.

Cypherus utilizes two types of encryption systems - the Blowfish encryption algorithm and the Diffie-Hellman public/private key exchange. Blowfish is used for the initial encryption of your email, encrypting the entire message. The Blowfish key itself is then encrypted using Diffie-Hellman. This locking of the Blowfish key by the Diffie-Hellman public key assures a secure communication between users, the decryption or 'private key' remaining a secret. The combination of these two encryption procedures results in a secure public key infrastructure or PKI.

You must be registered with the Cypherus Key Server to take advantage of PKI technology and, henceforth, it acts as a secure intermediary between senders and receivers using Cypherus, facilitating as it does the secure exchange of passwords during email correspondence, thereby eliminating the need for any manual input. To put it simply, Cypherus can securely manage the entire email encryption/decryption process without your active involvement. Your private key is securely stored within Cypherus on your computer, and not even Cypherus has access to it.

Cypherus offers two methods for sending encrypted email. These differ depending upon whether the recipient is also a Cypherus user and registered for free on the Cypherus Key Server, or if he or she does not have Cypherus and is not accordingly registered. If you are sending to a Cypherus user the text is encrypted automatically and the key is securely included using public key technologies. You can select from three encryption strengths, Normal (1024-bits), High (2048-bits) or Paranoid (4096-bits). If you are sending to non-Cypherus users you simply choose a message password. After sending the secured message, you must inform the receipients of the message password and they can decrypt the message on their side. Receiving encrypted email is also a cinch. Both types of recipients are given step-by-step instructions on how to decrypt the email.

To encrypt files or directories on your hard disk you just create a Cypherus archive much the same as you would create a Zip archive. New encrypted files are stored in the Cypherus archive and you can shred the old ones, permanently eliminating all trace of them. In fact, you can shred files at will any time by right-clicking on them in Windows Explorer and selecting shred. Again, extracting encrypted files from the archive is equally simple.

Allowing for quick and easy encryption and decryption of groups of files, Autoencryptaur allows you to assemble your files, especially frequently edited ones, into groups to encrypt and decrypt with a single mouse-click. This file grouping encourages users to organize sensitive material and maintain its security in an orderly fashion, and it allows them to do so simply. Somewhat analogous to bins, the groups hold collections of related files in order to impose order.

Instant messaging is forging ahead in popularity and needs to be protected just as much as email. The Text Encryptaur facility will put the security and privacy of your instant messaging on an equal footing with that of your email. It is recommended that both users have Cypherus for this process to be quick and efficient although it can be done with only one user having Cypherus and the other using Web Decryptaur found at www.cypherus.com. If both users have Cypherus it is simply a matter of agreeing on a key or password that both will use to encrypt and decrypt their messages, creating an encrypted message using Text Encryptaur, copying and pasting the message into your instant messaging utility and sending it. Received messages are decrypted using Text Encryptaur. Furthermore, you can streamline your instant messaging conversation by checking the 'Don't clear password' box so you won't have to enter the password repeatedly when encrypting and decrypting messages.

This product gives you something big for very little - that is very little money and very little effort. Now you can protect your files and online communications to paranoid level without having to be paranoid about the task. Cypherus is yet another product that has bestowed the power of encryption on the masses, unless of course you happen to reside in Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan or Cuba. This is because the U.S. government regards it as a munition and consequently forbids its export to these countries. I guess this could be regarded as a testament to its strength.

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