Why is AxCrypt better than Windows Compressed Folders password protection?
In the July 2003 issue of PC World magazine, there is a description of how to password protect files using the built-in Windows Compressed Folders of Windows XP and ME. This is a WinZip compatible extension of the Windows Shell (Windows Explorer). The problem is that since it’s WinZip-compatible it suffers from the same weakness as does WinZip. WinZip (and thus Compressed Folders) password protected archives use a proprietary and weak algorithm that is known to have the following weaknesses, exploited in numerous ‘Password Recovery’ products and services: • If the attacker knows the contents of one of the files in the archive, the password is susceptible to a so-called known plain-text attack. AxCrypt is never susceptible to this kind of attack. • If the archive contains 5 or more files, password recovery (i.e. cracked protection) is guaranteed. With AxCrypt you can have any number of files encrypted with the same passphrase without affecting the security. AxCrypt also supports numerou
