15-Minute Reviews :: Bildsoft Safest 2006 v1.0.2868.27285

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s review is of BildSoft Safest 2006 version 1.0.2868.27285 by Bildsoft – An application which uses a double-password system with multiple encryption levels to protect your files.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“Bildsoft Safest algorithm can, with two passwords, protect every kind of file thought the safest algorithm in the world. Safest protects four times the same file with particular modifies of the two passwords typed by the user. This makes impossible the creation of applications able to discover the passwords of the protected file.

Bildsoft Safest 2006 comes up with an algorithm which use two passwords to protect your data at best , this algorithm (AES 256) is used by high official such as administration offices and military bureaus in U.S.A.”

Quick Pros

• Interface is simple to use overall
• 4-pass and 8-pass fairly quick for encoding and decoding
• Does appear to properly encode and decode files

Quick Cons

• Awkward tab order for password fields
• Requires passwords twice for decryption
• Only encrypts one file at a time
• No self-contained packaging
• Plenty of confusing messages

Expansion

Bildsoft Safest’s interface is very straightforward. When you first launch your application, you are greeted by a simple window; Along the top of the window is a row of buttons (Encrypt file, Decrypt file, Cancel operation and the About button) as well as selecting the security level from a drop-down box (High and Very High). Below these buttons are four fields for entering your passwords (2 fields for passwords, and 2 fields for verification of the passwords) and a progress bar. To encrypt or decrypt a file, you must put in the passwords first, and then you click on Encrypt file or Decrypt file to then open up a browser to be able to select the file you wish to encrypt. While the interface is easy to use overall, there were some issues in the interface. First, I would have hoped for the cursor to start in the first password box and then a tab between the boxes (It requires three tabs to get from Password 1 to Password 2, and then a tab the rest of the way). Secondly, I’m not sure why you would be required to verify your decryption passwords; You have to fill all four fields to decrypt as well.

The process of encryption and decryption is surprisingly quick. The High setting is a four-pass encryption process and Very High is an eight-pass encryption process. However, the details on how this is accomplished or where the other encryption keys come from is sketchy (See their website for their description). The process is surprisingly quick. On a 22MB file, it only takes about 10 seconds for High, and double to 20 seconds for very high – Not bad for multi-pass encryption. The files I did test encrypted and decrypted reliably as well, with no data loss.

While this application does seem to do what it is intended, I did have a few concerns on this application. With this application, you can only encrypt one file at a time, so if you want to encrypt a group of files, you may want to compress the group of files into a single file first and then run the application on the compressed file. It would have been nice to have a self-extracting file option as well, and you may be wondering on if this would decrease the overall security; The encrypted files end in .sft and leaves the original file name intacy which may be a big hint to someone looking to crack your file anyways where to start, so I felt that either the application needs to do away with the application-specific file extension or at least add some more functionality.

I do have concerns with this application is the text found around the application, the description on Giveaway of the Day and on their website – It is in many places unclear or difficult to understand at best for their descriptions and information. As well I did find messages in the application a bit awkward as well; For example, when you decrypt a file, you will get the message ‘The file has been protected.’ You also will see the message in the About box of ‘Bildsoft is not responsible of possible losses of data and bugs that can be found in this software.’ That last message really did make me worry about data integrity (as why I did test it above). It may be in the author’s best interest to hire an English copywrite to make the descriptions and information more clear.

Final Verdict

While this product does look promising for extra protection someone may need, I did feel that my confidence in this application is weakened by the inclusion of a custom file extension, the maintaining of the original file name and extension in the file name of the new file as well as the weakness in some of the language (‘bugs that can be found in this software’). For free, this application may be one to tinker around with and have fun with but may be hard to part with critical information. As for paying $19.95 for this title, at this time I do not feel I could purchase this title.

Posted by BladedThoth on Friday, November 09, 2007