Special!

Because what is said between a husband and wife should be private — you have a right to basic privacy, it is a fundamental human right. There are people — individuals and organizations — who want to eavesdrop on your conversations; whether oral or written, transmitted electronically or in some old-fashioned way.

It is your right, responsibility and duty to protect the privacy of the information you want to keep confidential. The Cryptogra.ph makes it easy, fast, convenient and inexpensive to ensure your right to privacy.

The Cryptogra.ph is a Windows program, software that runs on all supported versions of the Windows operating system. It encrypts your data in a way that cannot be broken or deciphered without having the correct password and set of keys. More is said about this in the section labelled "How?".

What kind of data can you protect with the Cryptogra.ph's encryption? In short, anything that is stored in a file (or multiple files) on your computer. You can encrypt text files, image files (pictures, drawings, maps, any kind of image with any kind of file type or suffix), music and sound files, videos, Excel workbooks, compressed (zipped) files containing other folders and files, Word documents, PDF documents, databases, programs — you name it.

The Cryptogra.ph is brain-dead simple and thus it is very fast. It only takes a few milliseconds to encrypt gigabyte-sized files. Just because it's processing has been optimized to its simplest form, it does not mean that the Cryptogra.ph is simple-minded. On the contrary, it uses the most sophisticated encryption technique on the planet, one we guarantee cannot be broken — and we can prove it!

How does the Cryptogra.ph do this? For this, we have to get a bit technical. Today's most advanced cryptography systems use a key (or a combination of keys) to encrypt data. The bigger (longer) the key, the more difficult (and time-consuming) it is to "break" it. For many years, 128-bit key was the standard used by many government agencies, banks and other corporations. As computers got faster and supercomputers evolved, even 128-bit keys were proven to be of little challenge. Then came the 256-bit keys and even 1,024-bit keys. Quantum computers and neural networks can have their way with those, too!

Many "experts" claim that the only secure method of encryption is what is called the "One-time Pad" or "OTP". In such systems, the key is as long as the "payload", or the message being transmitted. The method of encryption is governed by the "pad" or password, which must only be used once. The problem with this method is that the "key" travels with the message, the encryption program can be decompiled (reverse engineered) and the "pad" can be guessed by computers fast enough for the task.

In fact, the only truly unbreakable means of encryption is the mutating key encryption, especially when used with a one-time password or pad. The password or pad is used only to hash the starting point of the key, after which the key mutates (it is transformed seemingly randomly). The mutation of the key is not based on the message or the encryption algorithm, so it cannot be guessed or reverse engineered. Much more detail is available under the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.

How much does the Cryptogra.ph cost? There are two versions: the Basic Edition which has some limitations and the Premier Edition, which does not. The Basic Edition can only handle input files less than 2Gbytes and probably less depending on the memory available. The Basic Edition only handles files, so it is unsuitable for encrypting SMS messages. It encrypts text when saved as a Word document or a Notepad .txt file (or any other word processing application's output file). The Basic Edition costs only US$19.95 (nineteen dollars and 95 cents) for the full-featured and fully functional program. The license fee includes updates for the first year. The software does not expire.

The Premier Edition works the same way as the Basic Edition and it uses the same encryption engine. It does not, however, have the limitations of the Basic Edition. The Premier Edition can handle files of all sizes, regardless of the available memory and it can encrypt simple text input and produce an encrypted text output. The price of the Premier Edition is only US$199.95 (one hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-five cents) and it also includes updates for the first year.

The Cryptogra.ph is licensed on a per individual (user) basis. A user may use the program on up to three (3) computers or devices (s)he owns. You may contact us for pricing for a company-wide (one physical location) or an enterprise-wide (multiple locations) license. If the program is intended for use by multiple users, multiple licenses must be purchased. Please see the section under "Buy".

Upon receipt of the license fee, we will email you a self-extracting archive file (.exe). Please allow one business day for delivery, keeping in mind that business days in your country may not coincide with business days in ours.

When executed, the package will install the Cryptogra.ph on your computer or device. Installation is simple and automatic. Registration is not required as the act of purchase will have registered the purchaser as the user.

The Cryptogra.ph is launched like any other program — from the Start Menu, from the Desktop, or from Windows Explorer. No internet connection is required while the program executes, it does not connect to any external site and the Cryptogra.ph does not log any action the user takes.

The Source File is the input file you want to encrypt or decrypt. You can enter the file name, or use Windows Explorer to locate it by clicking on the Search button (magnifying glass) next to the textbox.

The Target Folder is the folder, or subdirectory, where the encrypted or decrypted file (output file) will be stored. In the case of encryption, the file size will be just a little larger than the input file. The encrypted (output) file will have an innocuous name, like A398B6ED43 and no suffix. In the case of decryption, the output file will be identical in size, name and content to the file originally encrypted.

The Key Folder is the most important, as the files in this folder will be used to generate the thousands to millions of keys needed for encryption and decryption. The Key Folder must contain at least 32 files, but the more files it contains, the more secure the encryption. It is recommended that the Key Folder contain about 100 files but not more than about 600. The files contained herein may be of any type, however, high-resolution image files with lots of detail work best. It is recommended that most of the files in the Key Folder be image files (.jpg or .png), but all of them can be images. For best results, mix in some music files, PDF documents and other file types as well. The contents of the Key Folder must be identical when decrypting as was used during encryption. The name of the Key Folder can be different, but if the contained files do not match, decryption will result in an error. Please see the "FAQ" section below for some of the best practices.

If decryption is to take place on a different computer that was used to encrypt, the user decrypting must have a copy of the Key Folder as well as the Cryptogra.ph program. It is highly recommended that the decrypting user be given a copy of the key folder through a secure channel, such as a USB flash drive, CD-ROM, however other methods can be used safely, such as downloading from a web site or sending the Key Folder as a compressed (.zip or .rar) file through email. Never send the Key Folder with the encrypted message.

The Key Folder may be changed for each encryption-decryption cycle, in fact it is recommended that the Key Folder be changed often. Changes might involve adding or replacing files in the folder, or using a different folder altogether. The entire security of encryption rests on keeping the Key Folder secure. If the Key Folder is compromised, the encrypted file can be decrypted with some effort.

The Password is also important but not nearly so as the Key Folder. You chose a password each time you encrypt a file. It is recommended that a different password be chosen for each encryption. The password must be at least eight (8) characters long, but it can be as long as you wish. Any character (including space, numbers and special characters) in any language (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Russian, Thai, Arabic, etc.) may be used. If the file is to be decrypted by a different person, you must communicate the password via a secure channel. The password should never be sent along with the encrypted file.

Premier Edition

As mentioned above, the Premier Edition works the same way as the Basic Edition, without any of the limitations of file size or available memory. Since both versions use the same encryption engine, the two versions are compatible — files encrypted using Basic can be decrypted with Premier, and vice versa, provided that the file is not too large for the Basic.

The Premier Edition can also encrypt and decrypt simple text — no input and output files are needed. The text may be copied from the output textbox and pasted into an email or SMS message. Decryption of text may proceed in reverse, by pasting the received encrypted text into the Source Text textbox and clicking the "Decrypt" button to get the clear text.

A Simple Example

Source File:

Target (Encrypted) File:

Can you see a pattern in the encryption? Well, we cannot, either. The pattern is obvious in the Source File on the left, but no discernable pattern exists in the Target (encrypted) File on the right.

Our test cases test for a great variety of files, file types and content to ensure that the manner of encryption is secure under all conditions.

Try it with your own data, there is no risk at all (see "Warranty").

Both editions come with an unconditional, no questions asked, 30-day money-back guarantee. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the Cryptogra.ph, we will immediately refund your full payment within thirty (30) days of the date of purchase.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.  The full extent of our liability is the amount of money you have paid to us to purchase the Cryptogra.ph. In no case shall we be liable for any direct or consequential damages incurred as a result of your using this program. Your purchase confirms your acceptance of the limits of our liability.

We will not release your personal information you give us during the purchase process to anyone. We will not share your contact information with anyone, for any purpose. We will not spam you with emails for other products, although we may email you if updates to the Cryptogra.ph become available.

You may contact us for refunds, with enhancement requests, or with defect reports. We will issue refunds within one business day. We will attend to product related inquiries as resource availability permits.

1. Why is Cryptogra.ph so inexpensive?

   We are in the software business to create value in society and for our beloved customers, not to gouge people or to get the most money we possibly can. We have complete faith that the universe will amply reward our efforts. We want as many people to have access to our tools as possible. We further believe that money is not the goal, but a consequence of the value we create in the world.

2. Can I use foreign language characters in my password?

   Yes. Any language, any character set. Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Greek — anything. The more complex the password, the more secure it is, but please keep in mind that the person decrypting will need to enter (or paste) the same complicated password.

3. How long has this method been in use?

   Since World War II when the Germans used the two-book system of encryption. The sender and the receiver both had identical books in the same order. The message identified the starting book, page number and character number, which then was used to encrypt the first letter of the message. The next "key" character was computed based on the current "key" character (its sequence number in the alphabet or its ordinal position in the paragraph). The problem with this method is that books are generally available to the public and one can easily take a picture of a person's bookshelf or library.

4. How is the encryption performed?

   All encryption algorithms use the same approach. A quantity of bits (ones and zeros) is XORed (exclusive ORed) with another quantity of bits (the key). XOR is a single CPU instruction and thus it is very fast. If interested, you can do some research on how the XOR instruction transforms an array of bytes (one byte is 8 bits), usually from one byte to 8 bytes at a time.

5. Is the source code available for sale?

   Almost everything is for sale, as is the Cryptogra.ph source code. Contact us for details. Be warned, however, that the function which performs both the encryption and the decryption is all of ten (10) lines of C# code. The rest of the program handles the user interface and error checking, as well as managing the files involved.

6. If the source code is available, will security be compromised?

   Absolutely not. The program is inconsequential to security. The essence of security lies the set of keys, which the person doing the encrypting determines, and to a lesser extent in the password supplied. Just because you know how a lock works, it does not mean that you can unlock a locked padlock. Imagine a very sophisticated combination padlock, with millions of tumblers. The sequential order of the tumblers is hashed from a password you enter. We just sell you the lock...

7. Can I pay with foreign currrency?

   All prices are quoted in US dollars, however if your point of purchase (Paypal, Amazon, etc.) accepts the currency of your choice, then you can pay in that currency.

8. I lost my password. Can you recover it?

   The short answer is NO. If it is absolutely essential that you recover your password, and you are willing to send us a zipped (compressed) copy of your Key Folder, as well as your encrypted file, then you may send a request to our support group. The fee for this service will be determined at that time, based on the size of your Key Folder. Please be advised that we really don't want to be in the business of recovering lost passwords.

9. I lost/messed up my Key Folder. Can you recover it?

   Absolutely NOT. Once a Key Folder has been deleted (have you looked in the Recycle Bin?) or jumbled, it cannot be recovered. No information is kept about your Key Folder or its contents. Please take great care to preserve the integrity of your Key Folder. We recommed that you store it on, or at least back it up to, removable media, such as a USB Flash Drive or a CD-ROM which you keep in a safe place.

10. Is the Cryptogra.ph safe and virus free?

    Yes. Our labs scan the software package daily to ensure that it remains free of viruses. We use strong protection to keep the software and our site free of malware. If, in spite of our efforts, you suspect anomalous behavior, please notify Support immediately.

11. Does the Cryptogra.ph support native languages?

    The software has been localized to several languages, with more being added daily. For enterprise customers, we offer free custom localization and corporate branding. At the time of their respective releases, the Basic Edition is available in English, German, French and Hungarian. The Premier Edition offers the same languages plus Russian. Translators are currently working on Chinese, Spanish and Italian versions.

12. Can or should I rename the encrypted file after encryption?

    Good idea! As the Cryptogra.ph's use becomes more wide-spread, the unscrupulous ones might be scanning for and flagging files with names of hexadecimal digits and no suffix. Be sure to give the encrypted file a name which will not draw attention, such as "Mom and I at Coronado.jpg", or "Little Jimmy's Violin Recital.avi", or "Pop Duncan Sings the Blues.mp3", or "2013 IRS AMT Rulings.pdf". I am sure you can come up with some more creative names than these, maybe "Cigarette Boats on Lake Havasu.png"?

13. Is it possible (or useful) to double or triple encrypt files?

    Yes, it is possible. Use a different Key Folder and a different Password for each pass of encryption. Decryption must proceed in reverse order, of course. Is this practice useful? Marginally so. Double and triple encryption has not proven to increase the security of the encrypted material. Doing so is useful only if there is a chance that either the Key Folder or the Password may have been compromised.

14. What are some of the best practices?

    • Have at least 60 files in your Key folder; 100 - 150 would be even better.
    • Be sure to have most (60 - 80%) of the files in your Key Folder as high-resolution images (.jpg or .png files). You can search for and download such images, for example like this.
    • Mix in some music files and video clips, PDF documents and Excel workbooks, too.
    • Make your password at least 20 characters long, 40 would be better. Include punctuation and special characters.
    • Never use the same password more than once. If needed, have an encrypted file with your Source File names and passwords.
    • After each encryption, rename the first file in your Key folder to start with "zZz01_", "zZz02_" and so on.
    • When about one half of the files in your Key Folder start with "zZz", create or use a new Key Folder.