Firetrust Encrypt only requires an Internet browser like Internet Explorer 5.01 or later (Encrypt supports all Internet browsers except Opera). The browser must support Java Applets.
Both sender and receiver require an email client that allows sending/receiving of attachments. You do not require an email client if your ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides a web-based email application that supports attachments.
The sender of the encrypted file also requires .NET to be installed on their computer.
To enable Java Applets:
Edit > Preferences > Advanced > tick Enable Java
Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > scroll down to make sure that JIT compiler for virtual machine enabled is selected.
You can encrypt any file under 3MB.
If you are a user of Benign, you need to allow applets to be received in your email.
To do this in Benign click Options > Security Profiles > HTML and remove the check mark from Remove applets and embedding.
The encrypted file will then also have to be resent to you.
Old versions of AOL do not support MIME attachments. The method they use to attach files is a format called UUENCODE. The best strategy here is to use a recent version of AOL software. The symptoms of this problem are that you can see the logon screen OK, but you are not able to press the Open Envelope pushbutton.
The AOL webmail client will not allow the email to be decrypted directly from its preview pane. If you have any trouble decrypting, first save the email attachment to disk.
Steps in using AOL webmail:
You save the encrypted attachment the same way you save any other email attachment. From your email application, select File > Save attachments. This will save the attachment to the selected folder and preserve the encryption.
To display the attachment again, simply double-click on the file name in Windows Explorer and enter the password.
Enter your password in your browser and click on the Save Document pushbutton.
If you do not see the Save Document pushbutton on the password screen then you will have entered an incorrect password. Click Back in your browser, then enter the correct password to continue.
If you have already opened an encrypted attachment, the decryption algorithm may be stored in your pc's cache. Assuming you do not delete your local cache, you should then be able to go back and open that attachment again, even when you are not connected to the Internet.
The Java applet that Firetrust Encrypt uses by default is an unsigned Java client. This means that it operates in the Java sandbox. The Java sandbox is designed to allow a Java applet to run, but not be able to get outside of the sandbox.
The use of an unsigned Java client which operates in the sandbox prevents the applet from touching your hard disk or doing anything mischievous or dangerous to your system.
Simply use the old password that was active the time the attachment was sent to you. If you change your password, it does not affect attachments that were previously received and stored on your local machine.
Firetrust Encrypt does not maintain passwords. Your password is assigned by the originator of the secure email. Contact them to retrieve it.
The Yahoo web based email browser intentionally modifies the content of attachments prior to display in an attempt to prevent bad things from happening to its display. You can properly decrypt and display the attachment if you select the Download pushbutton from the browser and Save the attachment first.
The Hotmail web based email browser strips any active content of attachments prior to display in an attempt to prevent bad things happening to its own display. You can properly decrypt and display the attachment if you select the Download pushbutton from the browser and Save the attachment first.
For years, encryption strength used in Internet security was 40-bits, which has been determined weak by the Internet security experts. 128-bits has become common in the online business community and is considered acceptably strong encryption.
Our encryption is 256-bits which is significantly stronger. What that means is that assuming that there is a system that can brute-force crack a 128-bit encryption in a week, it would take 6,538,461,538,461,540,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to crack it at 256-bits. At this point you can consider your data pretty safe.
No. Firetrust Encrypt does the encryption. It does not rely on the security of the Internet browser or your email client. It is recommended however that you install the highest security possible for your browser.
While attempting to open your encrypted file on your Desktop, you get the Internet Explorer Information Bar message:
"To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this file from showing active content that could access your computer. Click here for options...."
Solution
1. Click the Information Bar
2. Click Allow Blocked Content
The recipient of your Firetrust Encrypt encrypted file will need the password.
Do not send the password in the same email as the encrypted file.
Sending the password in another email would be safe, i.e:
Email 1. Password
Email 2. Encrypted file
This means that your default email program does not support automatic email creation.
To get around your default email program's inability to support automatic email creation in Encrypt, select Desktop, (by "Send encrypted package to:") which saves the encrypted file to your desktop as Encrypted.htm.
You can then attach the encrypted file to an email message.