How Panwrypter Protects Files
Overview
Panwrypter (pan.rip.ter) is an app that you can use to protect your most important files and information from cyber attacks, and other unauthorized access.
Panwrypter uses a patent-pending method of protection, that processes your files in a way that allows them to be safely stored across two or more physical locations as protected volumes.
In addition, it provides the ability to transfer and collect these protected volumes to and from their designated storage sites.
This approach makes it markedly more difficult for an attacker to gain access to, and reverse engineer your information - especially over long periods of time in which your files and information may be neglected.
Sites
Panwrypter employs the concept of storage sites - places that you designate to safely store your protected volumes - as part of it's core approach to protecting your files. Panwrypter restructures your file data so it can be securely stored across these storage sites.
An example of a storage site might be
- A Place at Home
- An Online File Storage Service
When you protect your files, you are given a choice of using from 2 to 8 storage sites to protect your files. Depending on how you want to protect your files, you can select physical sites, online file storage services, or a hybrid mixture of both.
Depending on the storage media and storage services used for site, you might have storage capacity limitations. To alleviate this problem, Panwrypter provides options for automatically sizing your protected volumes to make it easier to transfer them to the storage media and storage sites of your choice.
You can also select whether or not you want Panwrypter to automatically transfer the protected volumes to their storage sites after protection has completed.
If you choose not to use the automatic transfer option, your files are simply prepared into protected volumes and left on your Mac, for you to transfer to their storage sites at a later time.
Protecting Files - Overview
When you protect your files using Panwrypter, your files are processed, or depleted using a process called bitwise geospatial depletion - a process that breaks up your file data into non-linear chunks, called protected volumes.
These protected volumes are then transferred to their designated storage sites, and remain there until you need to access them again in the future.
If an attacker or malicious software gains access to any one site, or even multiple sites, it is extremely difficult to reverse engineer the original file data, since the data is not stored holistically at one location.
The data at any given site is in a depleted state.
Restoring Files - Overview
When you Restore your protected storage volumes, your files are collected back from their storage sites, and processed (undepleted) back into their original state.
Panwrypter is intended to work with your existing storage habits, and also allows you to enhance and adapt these habits to further increase the security of your protected files.
More information on selecting storage sites
Historical Approaches to Protecting Files
Let's look at some existing ways that you might be using to protect your files and personal information.
ORIGINAL FILE
This is an example of a text file that contains sensitive or confidential information, and needs to be protected. In it's native state, it is readable by loading it up in a text editor or word processor.
PROTECTION BY ENCRYPTION
If you encrypt this file, it is transformed into a non-readable form that requires some type of password or key to access the original information.
With most common forms of encryption, all of the files encrypted data is stored in one physical location. This means that if the encryption is broken, the attacker has full access to all of the original information.
The concept of Encryption was originated, and has evolved from a time that pre-dates the existence of computers, the Internet, and cloud-computing.
Encryption is flawed, in that it does not take into account the factors of time and effort, combined with the use of massive, distributed, and constantly evolving computing resources. It is thus possible for an attacker to eventually break most forms of encryption.
Encryption algorithms of yesteryear are now trivial by todays standards. If an attacker gets encrypted files, it is safe to say that over time, the original file information can eventually be accessed.
PROTECTION BY SPLITTING
If you split this file into segments, and store each segment in a separate physical location, each segment still contains linear, sequential data.
If one site is compromised, it is still possible for an attacker to reverse engineer the data from this segment, access a portion of your sensitive information and infer additional details from this segment.
This approach is not an effective way to protect your files.
PROTECTION BY DEPLETION
If you deplete this file using Panwrypter, and store each segment in a separate physical location, each depleted segment contains non-linear, non-sequential data.
If one site is compromised, it is not possible to reverse engineer the information from the segment, as the data is in a "depleted state". The attacker must first obtain all segments from all physical locations in order to make sense of any portion of the information.
This approach is an extremely effective way to protect your files.
Important
Though this type of protection is an extremely effective way to protect your most sensitive files and information, you need to be aware of the following:
- MULTI-SITE STORAGE
Your files are no longer stored in one place. This means that if you lose the data from one site, your files cannot be restored or recovered in any way.
This disadvantage might also be considered an advantage, as it means you have an extremely effective way to govern whether or not you want the files to exist any more. Simply deleting or destroying one protected volume will effectively render all other protected volumes useless and unrecoverable
- SITE SAFETY
You need to make sure that the storage sites you select are safe enough to house the protected volumes. Losing one volume renders all others useless. More information on selecting storage sites
- REMEMBER
Once you have transferred your protected volumes to your selected sites, it is important to find a very reliable way to remember the location of your storage sites
- MEDIA SAFETY
You need to make sure that the storage media you select is reliable, especially if you want to store your files over a long period of time. More information on selecting storage types
- TEST RESTORES
Before you start protecting and transferring your files we STRONGLY recommend that you perform a few practice Protect, Collect and Restore tests to help you become more familiar with this type of file protection
Panwrypter is ideal for
- Protecting your most sensitive files and information for storage and transmission
- Protecting sensitive files that you want to store (and likely will forget about), for long periods of time
- Protecting low-to-moderate amounts of sensitive files - approximately 15Gb per storage session, based on the level of recovery you need.
- Create multiple storage sessions to protect larger volumes of files
Panwrypter is not suitable for
- Everyday archiving/backup of files that are not private
- Protecting files that you need to access frequently
- Protecting large/huge volumes of files