Gwebs Cryptographer

Some changes ahead

I’m wrapping up my work here in Gwebs company and within China. It has been pleasant to work here and with nice atmosphere. So many new things learned and gained the idea of business in China. But like said, time flies and now it’s time for me to head back to Finland, finish up my studies and head for the new challenges. Anyway before that, I still have some ideas and things to share with you.

I mentioned earlier in my posts that I will test Google Wave, when it will come available for everyone. Well, I have to pass this job to my colleagues, ’cause the Google Wave for regular users hasn’t been released yet. Only the test version for selected persons is available so far. (Here is the post about Google Wave.)

Then some other things which I also mentioned earlier, is that I’m willing to try out the Windows Mobile 6.5 with some email encryption application and see how well it will work with our MailCloak encryption software. Well, guess what ? Windows Mobile 6.5 hasn’t been released yet for HTC Touch Diamond 2, so I have to wait until end of this or next month. So far, the estimated release date is “during October/November 2009″, so still some time to go. Maybe I’ll try it out back in Finland and then just send the results to my colleagues, ’cause I think that this topic is very interesting for mobile users like me. These mobile issues are getting more and more important, because the smart phone markets are increasing rapidly.  (Here is the post about email encryption mobile usage.)

What else ?
I guess, quite many people found out that Windows 7 is finally released and available for consumers. So we took a sneak peek for that to check how different it really is, and how are the security issues handled there. For me it has always been as a thought in my head that Microsoft Windows and security doesn’t really belong in to the same sentence, at least not in a positive way. But we will see, I’m open-minded with this one, so much good I have heard about Windows 7 during the beta-testing.

Gwebs, email, encryption, google, new, software email, Email Encryption, encryption, Google Wave, Gwebs, MailCloak, Mobile, Windows 7, Windows mobile 6.5

Finally we got a new layout for Cryptographer’s English blog. Now the layout is about the same as our Chinese blog’s layout.
I personally like this layout much better than previous one. The blog is now easier to follow and older posts are organized with categories and of course you can also browse the archives to see what has happened previously.
The layout and blog-features will update bit by bit, and hopefully soon everything is working well. So far we have faced some inconveniences of the new layout, but I believe that those problems are mostly handled by tweaking the CSS-style sheets.

Gwebs, new blog, chinese, english, Gwebs, layout, new

It’s autumn time - time of changes. Some of you might notice that Gwebs’ website (www.gwebs.com) was updated last week. New layout and updated information about our products and services. That was a big change for us, and needed a lot of work to do. That was one reason why the blog didn’t got updates for a while.

But now the new website is published, so we thought to update our English blog to face readers’ demands better. Being honest, I - myself don’t like the current layout, it’s just too difficult to browse all the information and try to find interesting posts. Our new layout will be similar with our current Chinese blog (blogcn.gwebs.com). I believe that this update will increase the usage of the old data and make those posts easier to reach, for everybody.

Also our blog’s focus will change a bit in near future. The new focus will consist e-mail, SaaS, document and statement encryption, safety and privacy issues. Without forgetting useful tips, hints and tricks.

Gwebs, Release, new document, e-mail, encryption, Gwebs, new, Release, saas, statement

MailCloak Pro is now in Public Beta!

MailCloak for Pro is a combination of all of Global Web Security Systems’ breakthrough encryption programs, and a little more. Download MailCloak Pro here!

MailCloak Pro = MailCloak for Firefox + MailCloak for Mail Clients + MailCloak for Internet Explorer (only available in MailCloak Pro)!

MailCloak was designed from the ground up to be the first encryption program for browser-based email, and POP3/SMTP email. MailCloak Pro supports ALL mail clients, while making GnuPG public-key encryption so simple anyone can use it! And everyone using it is the goal, That’s why MailCloak works with today’s most popular webmail systems as well.

Now you and your contacts can easily exchange encrypted email, and it doesnt matter what they use - Gmail on Firefox? Hotmail in Internet Explorer? YourCustomDomain.Com with Outlook (custom domains are only supported in Outlook and our upcoming SMB version)? They’re all supported! And MailCloak works with cross platform systems too -  that’s because we use the Gnu Privacy Guard MailCloak compatible with tons of other GPG programs on any platform you can think of. Mac, Linux, even legacy DOS users can exchange email with MailCloak users.

Key features include:

Automatic Key Exchange: MailCloak’s automatic key exchange feature automatically attached your public keys to outgoing emails, and automatically imports your contact’s public keys from incoming emails.

Automatic Encryption: Just turn MailCloak on and send email as usual - if you have already done a key exchange, your email will be encrypted.

Respect for Privacy: MailCloak stores your keys on your computer, not ours. So you can be confident that only you and your recipients can read MailCloak encrypted emails

End-to-End Encryption: MailCloak encrypts your email on your computer, and decrypts it on the recipient’s computer. Absolutely no one else will ever be able to read your email. See my previous post to understand the difference between HTTP/S encryption and End-to-End encryption.

Here’s an animation of MailCloak working in Mozilla Thunderbird:

MailCloak Pro is tested and works with the following email clients:

• Outlook 2002
• Outlook 2003
• Outlook2007
• Foxmail 5
• Foxmail 6
• Outlook Express 6
• Koomail 5.32
• Thunderbird 2.0.0.21
• DreamMail 4.4

If you don’t see your email client on the list, don’t fret, MailCloak for Mail Clients  works with most (all that we’ve tested) Windows XP POP3/SMTP Mail clients- so go ahead, download MailCloak and give it a spin.

MailCloak has also been tested on following web browsers:

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 - 3.1b (not included in our current beta, but can be added seperately with a free download and will be included in future releases.)

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6， 7

And all Trident based browsers, including (but not limited to):

• Avant Browser  11.0
• gisoon 1.0
• GreenBrowser 5.0
• maxthon 2.0
• MyIE 3
• Tencent Treveler 4
• The World Browser 2

Download MailCloak Pro here!

If you would like to report that MailCloak works with your email client or browser, or if you experience any problems installing or using MailCloak, please let us know!

Gwebs, MailCloak, Release, Security, email, encryption, new, software Email Encryption, email encryption software, Release

WebmailSafety 2.0 Released!

WebmailSafety v1.0 was the world’s first public key encryption product designed for webmail from the ground up. Version 2.0 adds a host of new features designed to make webmail encryption even easier.  Download WebmailSafety 2.0 here!

New Features:

• RSA 2048 bit public key encryption for Webmail.
• Supports Gmail.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com and Yahoo.com.
• New Multi-User Interface with Avitars.
• Auto-Update.
• Tray Icon Now Provides Total Control.
• Improved Key Management.
• Improved Invitation Process.
• Improved English Language Support.
• New French Language Support.
• New Hot-Key and Desktop Integration.
• Multiple Recipient Support.
• And Many More!

And now for some screen shots!

Here is the Login screen:

Encryption From Gmail:

The Windows Tray:

File Encryption:

Auto-Update:

Now what are you waiting for? Download WebmailSafety 2.0 at www.gwebs.com!

Release, new, software encryption, Features, Gwebs, new, Release, software

I just read an review of a new 64 gb flash drive from Samsung on ComputerWorld.com and it got me thinking about the best way to distribute resources on a laptop. Here are some excerpts from the article, and my comments:

The no-moving-parts characteristic is, in part, what protects your data longer, since accidentally bumping your laptop won’t scramble your stored files. Samsung says the drive can withstand an operating shock of 1,500Gs at .5 miliseconds (versus 300Gs at 2 miliseconds for a traditional hard drive). The drive is heartier in one other important way: Mean time between failure is rated at over 2 million hours, versus under 500,000 hours for the company’s other drives.

….

Other specifications are equally “small”: power consumption is just 1 watt when the system is active, 0.1 watt when idle, and .06 watt in standby mode. (Equivalent power consumption figures with hard drives are 2.1, 1.5, and .2 watts, respectively.)

Flash drives will be the next big thing in laptop computing. The simple fact that they are three times more durable then platter drives is enough to make me want to lay out for one (data integrity is much more important to any business user then his/her screen, which can be replaced with minimal effort). Add to that the fact that they reduce energy consumption (thus increasing battery life), and it becomes a no-brainer for a non-media dependent person to use a flash HD.

On the other hand, many of us use massive amounts of storage for digital imaging, music, and video. These users require platter HDDs because you cant buy a 250 gb flash drive yet. (but with Moore’s law, we will have 256 gb flash drives in no time…)

Now there are two solutions to this problem (best practices) - if you are using your laptop as a digital video/photography production system, you can buy a dual hd system. Put your system on one partition (which you ghost after setting up your ideal system config) and your important word docs and the like on another (encrypted) partition on the flash drive , and then put your media files on your 250 gig platter drive (all of which you have backed up of course.)

The other (not so good) option is to carry around a minimal dataset on your laptop that is to say keep your images and video in highly compressed format for the laptop, and have them in RAW your whatever you use for uncompressed storage on some NAT drive or server (but don’t forget the sys partition and ghost… it will come in handy in the future).

Security, encryption, new best practices, data security, encryption, ghost, laptop, ssd, storage