FreeOTFE facts for kids
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FreeOTFE running on Windows XP
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| Developer(s) | Sarah Dean |
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| Stable release |
5.21 / 7 February 2010
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| Written in | C, Delphi (GUI) |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows and Windows Mobile |
| Available in | Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish |
| Type | Disk encryption software |
| License | Free and open-source software that requires attribution |
FreeOTFE was a special computer program that helped keep your digital files safe. It used something called on-the-fly disk encryption. This means it would automatically scramble (encrypt) your files as you saved them. Then, it would unscramble (decrypt) them when you wanted to use them.
FreeOTFE worked on Microsoft Windows computers and older Windows Mobile devices. It could create a "virtual drive" on your computer. Think of this as a secret folder that acts like a separate hard drive. Anything you saved to this virtual drive was automatically encrypted. This made sure your private information stayed private. Other programs like TrueCrypt and Microsoft's BitLocker do similar things.
The person who created FreeOTFE, Sarah Dean, stopped working on it around 2011. The official website for FreeOTFE is no longer active. However, you can still find the original program on a mirrored site at Sourceforge. In 2014, a new version of the program, called LibreCrypt, was started by other developers on GitHub.
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What FreeOTFE Did
FreeOTFE was first released in 2004. It was one of the first open-source programs for disk encryption that let other people add new ways to encrypt data if they knew how. This made it very flexible.
This software could also work with encrypted files that were made on Linux computers. This meant you could easily share and access encrypted data between different types of computers. FreeOTFE was also one of the first programs of its kind to support Windows Vista and older handheld devices called PDAs.
To make your files even more secure, FreeOTFE offered an option for "two-factor authentication." This meant you could use things like smart cards or special security devices to unlock your encrypted files. It added an extra layer of protection.
FreeOTFE also let you create "hidden volumes." Imagine a secret space inside your encrypted files that nobody would know about, even if they found your main encrypted area. This feature helped keep your data extra private. The program could also encrypt entire parts of your computer's storage, but not the main part where your operating system (like Windows) is installed.
Using FreeOTFE on the Go
FreeOTFE had a special "portable" mode. This meant you could put the program on a USB stick or another portable device. You could carry it around with your encrypted files. This allowed you to use FreeOTFE on different Windows computers without having to install the full program. You could "mount" (open) your encrypted data as a virtual disk.
To use this portable mode, you usually needed special computer permissions called "administrator rights." This is because the program had to temporarily install small pieces of software called "device drivers" to create the virtual disks.
Using FreeOTFE Without Installation
FreeOTFE also came with another program called "FreeOTFE Explorer." This was a "driverless system." It let you use your encrypted files without needing administrator rights.
This was really helpful if you were using a public computer, like at a library or a school. On these computers, you usually can't install new software or get administrator rights. FreeOTFE Explorer let you access your encrypted data safely.
Unlike the main FreeOTFE program, FreeOTFE Explorer didn't create a virtual drive that encrypted files automatically. Instead, it worked more like a ZIP file. You could open your encrypted disk images and take out or put in files, just like you would with a regular folder in Windows Explorer.
How FreeOTFE Encrypted Data
FreeOTFE was very flexible in how it encrypted data. It used many different methods to scramble your information.
Encryption Methods (Ciphers)
FreeOTFE used several strong encryption methods, also known as ciphers. These included:
All these ciphers could be used with different "keylengths," which means they could use different levels of complexity to encrypt your data.
Cipher Modes
FreeOTFE used different "modes" for its encryption. These modes are like different strategies for how the cipher works with your data. It started with CBC (cipher-block chaining) and later added more secure modes like LRW and XTS. XTS is a very strong mode often used for disk encryption.
Hash Algorithms
Besides ciphers, FreeOTFE also used many different "hash algorithms." These are special mathematical functions that create a unique digital "fingerprint" for your data. They are important for checking if data has been changed and for creating secure passwords. Some of the hash algorithms included:
- MD2
- MD4
- MD5
- RIPEMD-128
- RIPEMD-160
- RIPEMD-224
- RIPEMD-320
- SHA-1
- SHA-224
- SHA-256
- SHA-384
- SHA-512
- Tiger
- Whirlpool
See Also
- Disk encryption
- Disk encryption software
- On-the-fly encryption
- Comparison of disk encryption software
