UPDATE: 03/28/01 For more information on PCYPHER SOFTWAR 804/639-1608 VOICE MAIL/OFFICE PO BOX 5146 MIDLOTHIAN, VA 23112 email - softwar@softwar.net INTRODUCTION COLD WAR ORPHAN OR NEW WORLD BABY? PCYPHER was born in the black, buried in a cold war computer lab, a tool of war. The intent was to devise an unbreakable code system for electronic combat. The war and much of the equipment for which PCYPHER was invented never happened. They disappeared along with the Berlin wall and the fall of the Soviet Union. However, just as a new world was dawning, we realized that much of the old world rules remain. The reason for PCYPHER has not changed. It is as old as mankind. To keep secrets... C.R. Smith 1993 YOUR DATA OR YOUR LIFE! PCYPHER will protect you from information theft. Much of what we are, will be and may become is lodged somewhere on a computer. Worse, that computer is our own! Each time someone else has access to your computer they have access to your life. Examples of life effecting information are easy to find, just look at your own PC. Spreadsheets with financial data, investment data, tax forms, source code for programs. Computer data is even admissible as evidence in court. Even a simple diary may be so personally important that you would insist on locking it with an ordinary key. Today, in our network world, each time you sign onto a bulletin board you are inviting someone to rifle through your life without you knowing it. Each time you transmit data through a modem or fax board, you are also vulnerable. Each time a technician services your machine. Each night when you leave the office, your machine and someone else may be up working late. Just think of the possibilities a determined computer thief can use against you to break in to your open books. Don't loose any sleep over it. Your cure for this nightmare is PCYPHER. FIVE WAYS TO KEEP YOUR SECRETS SAFE - WINDOWS - PHOTON KEY Pcypher Light for Windows. Simply plug the included Light Probe into the microphone input on your sound card. Point the light probe at a noisy source such as your CRT or a light with your to test. You should be able to hear such sources on your sound card speaker's output. You can also record it with any of the standard microphone recording software provided with Windows. If you have a software volume setting you may want to adjust to a low level for best performance. To generate a key just click the key maker box and name the key file. Point the light probe at any source, wave it around or just move it every once in a while. There is a gauge provided to give you a visual idea of how much key has been generated. CHAOS KEY Pcypher Light has a unique key system based on ANY input file. This system allows you to create a key that is an electronic fingerprint of any file you choose. The same file will always create the same CHAOS key. Basically, your input file is reduced to numbers and then passed through the same formulas that produce the PHOTON keys. There is a gauge provided to give you a visual idea of how much key has been generated. NASTY - PASSWORD: PCYPHER allows you to protect yourself with three ways of encryption. First, the lowest level of security you may use is a PASSWORD up to 32 characters in length. Nice though passwords are, they are also easy to break. PCYPHER enhances your password powers by recognizing every KEY on the keyboard except the Enter, Backspace and Escape key. You may use upper/lower case letters, symbols, even the Home, End, Del, Ins and arrow keys. This increases your power to make passwords even your mother wouldn't know. NASTIER - USER KEY FILE: Second, a higher level of security you may use is a USER key file. The USER key file is much like an extended password. You can use any type of valid DOS file. Data, text or program. The advantage of a USER KEY file is that it is like a password. The USER key you select may be anything from a poem keyed in with an editor, a public document such as the Constitution (available from an on-line library) or even a DOS utility. You select it and it is the key. So beware non-literate thieves! Once upon a midnight dreary... THE BIG UGLY - PCYkey FILE: Finally, PCYPHER uses a method that only your computer and you can make. PCYkey (pronounced: sikee) is a randomly generated key file that uses our own specially written version of a one-time pad system. The only system that is in theory and in practice that cannot be cracked. The use of a PCYkey is the ultimate in security even if the concept of keeping a key is as old as the front door. However, you can only make a PCYkey. No two Psyches are alike. Your data is not really stored but smashed with a key that defies reproduction. Even the big boys with their super- computers will spend years (and millions $$) trying to work this baby out. Worse still, if you loose your PCYkey... You can forget calling the SOFTWAR office. Even we can't break in! INSTALLATION: WINDOWS: Pcypher is distributed on two standard disks or as a self-installing executable Pcypher.exe on a single CD. 1 - Disk Install - Insert disk one into your A drive. Select the "RUN" option from the Windows "FILE" menu bar at the top. The software will automatically request disk two. 2 - CD Install - Insert the CD into your CD drive. Run Pcypher.exe and the self-install program will install. PCYPHER SETUP Pcypher allows you to automatically execute any specific program after decoding a file using the 3- character extension of the file name. This allows you to open commonly used file types (e.g. pdf, doc, bmp, txt, mp3, jpg, gif…etc…) in a user specified program. Click on the SETUP option from the main Pcypher screen to specify the 3-character extension and user program. 1 - Select the default program you wish to run - Use the SETUP form drive; directory and file selection boxes to pick the program you want to run 2 - Select the default file extension - Enter the three-character file extension in the text box provided at the top of the menu 3 - Click on ADD function The selected program and three-character file default will be added to the PCYPHER.INI file 4 - Save the file Click on the SAVE file option to save the selected defaults - YOU MUST SAVE all changes or they will not be stored in the PCYPHER.INI file. 5 - How to delete a default file Highlight the selected three-character file default and click on delete – YOU MUST SAVE all changes or they will not be stored in the PCYPHER.INI file. 6 - Quit function Quit leaves the PCYPHER set up menu without saving any information to the PCYPHER.INI file. PCYPHER OPERATIONS: Windows: 1 - Select the file - Use the drive, file select boxes to select the file you wish to Pcypher or De-Pcypher. 2 - Select the key type - Select the key type by clicking on one of the red key type boxes. The options are password, User file, Pcypher file, or Photon file as the key type. If you use a password, simply type in the password below. If you use any file for a key (user, Pcypher, Photon) then you will be prompted to select the file from a file box in step 3. 3 - Select the operation. Pcypher has a main start up screen with the following selection buttons: Pcypher Encode the selected file with the selected method. The PCYPHER command encrypts your data. You must select a method of PCYPHER, either password, User KEY file or PCYkey file. If you select a key file mode then you must also provide the file name. Finally, you must provide the file you wish to PCYPHER. DePcypher Decode the selected file with the selected method. The DE-PCYPHER command de-crypts your data. You must select a method of DE-PCYPHER, either password, User KEY file or PCYkey file. If you select a key file mode then you must also provide the file name. Finally, you must provide the file you wish to DE-PCYPHER. Open Open decodes the selected file with the selected method and then checks the PCYPHER.INI set up file to execute a default program based on the file extension (e.g. doc, bmp, txt, etc…). The Open command de-crypts your data and runs the user program matched to the 3 character file name. You must select a de-pcypher method to Open the file either password, User KEY file or PCYkey file. If you select a key file mode then you must also provide the file name Keymaker Makes either Pcypher (random computer generated number) or photon key (light probe). This option creates a PCYkey file that you can use to lock and un-lock your data. You should write your key separate from your PC on a diskette, zip disk or CD. Your PCYkey file can be any size from 16K bytes to 32 Meg in size. You should tailor your PCYkey file to the maximum size of file you are locking, or use the entire diskette. If you cannot store the PCYkey file separates, then a simple USER key or password can be used to super-Pcypher and scramble your PCYkey file. Help Help option to explain things online. Exit Ends program and closes the Window. DISK SPACE REQUIREMENTS - Windows - The Windows version, including drivers, takes about 1.7 megabytes of disk space. ELEMENTS OF DATA SECURITY PCYPHER is a data security product, capable of rendering your files useless to anyone but you. However, there are many things that can enhance your usage of our product. KEY SECURITY The three methods of encryption given allow you to select both the means and the content of the key that locks your data. Password security is difficult other than change your password often, and use something ONLY YOU WOULD KNOW. Examples of passwords not to use are obvious: PASSWORD, YOUR NAME, THE FILE NAME, COLORS, and 12345, ABCDEFG. Try something only you know. The name of your first boy/girl friend, the names of flowers, stamps, airplanes, cartoon characters. Anything but what you normally discuss with other people. Use passwords for the lowest level of security, or for operations where a short, in-destructible key is required. The User file is one step above a password in that it can be a non-physical key, such as a poem, selection of literature, document that is memorized. You can use any type of file for a user key but I suggest you stay away from files where a large number of repetitive data or duplicates exist. BE CAUTIOUS about this because such files maybe easily found or duplicated. Documents, help files, data and text files are far more preferable to .EXE or .COM files for a User key. The PCYkey file is above both methods in security but you can't simply key one in. However, the concept of a key is not foreign to anyone in the modern world... Why not carry it on a diskette or CD in you pocket? Do you leave your keys out in the office for everyone to use? Not likely. So, taking a diskette is not unusual to anyone working with a PC. Simply make a backup copy of the PCYkey and stash it somewhere physically safe (with you, your dog, your spouse, in a safety deposit box). If you change your PCYkey just make another copy. ALWAYS BACKUP ALL YOUR DATA AND YOUR PCYKEYS AND STORE THEM OFFSITE. This last prudent move is for those of you who do not want to go out of business if a storm, or terrorist (can you say Florida or New York?) strikes. Please note, the firms who had offsite backups were up and operating in hours, capturing vast amounts of business their idle brethren lost. I recommend a safety deposit box since I am partial to large, fire/water/bomb proof safes and paying a weekly visit to the bank is not unusual for anyone with a loan payment. Please note that a PCYkey file has may advantages over both the User file and the password method. I recommend that the PCYkey file become your daily lock and the password/User file be used if it is not available. Why? Simply because even if the un-coded version of a data file were made available it is still impossible to unlock or deduce the PCYkey file. This is because being a random based file system and using our special version of the one time keypad system enables PCYPHER to lock each file differently. Even if you were to lock the same file twice, it will still be different in content if not in size. Although, this is also applied at a lower level in the Password and User key file functions, only the PCYkey system can lock/unlock your data in a one-time fashion. PCYPHER LICENSE AGREEMENT Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Softwar. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the agreement. You may not sublicense, assign rent, lease or otherwise transfer this manual or software. This license granted to you by SOFTWAR authorizes you to use the licensed software on any single computer or any replacement for that computer. You may make copies of the software for back up or archival purposes only. It is against the law to copy the software on any medium except as specifically allowed in this license or nondisclosure agreement. No part of this manual or software may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose without the express written permission of Softwar. LIMITED WARRANTY Softwar warrants the physical diskettes(s) or CDs and physical documentation enclosed herein to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of sixty days from the purchase date. If Softwar receives notification within the warranty period of defects in materials or workmanship and such notification is determined by Softwar to be correct, Softwar will replace the defective diskette(s) or documentation. DO NO RETURN ANY PRODUCT UNTIL YOU HAVE CALLED THE SOFTWAR CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT AND OBTAINED A RETURN AUTHORIZATION NUMBER. The entire exclusive liability and remedy for breach of this Limited Warranty shall be limited to replacement of defective diskettes(s) or documentation and shall not include or extend to any claim for or right to recover any other damages, including but not limited to, loss of profit, data, or use of the software, or special, incidental, or consequential damages or other similar claims, even if Softwar has been specifically advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event will Softwar's liability for any damages to you or any other person ever exceed the lower of suggested list price or actual price paid for the license to use the software, regardless of any form of the claim. SOFTWAR SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. This limited warranty gives you specific legal rights; you may have others, which may vary from state to state. Some states do not allow the exclusion of incidental or consequential damages, or the limitation on how long an implied warranty lasts, so some of the above may not apply to you. *** PLEASE NOTE *** *** NOT FOR EXPORT *** PCYPHER IS CONSIDERED A MUNITION BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ILLEGAL USE OR EXPORT OF THIS PRODUCT CAN BE CONSIDERED A FELONY - EXPORT OR TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP TO ENTITIES OUT-SIDE THE U.S. AND CANADA IS FORBIDDEN WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE U.S. COMMERCE DEPT. AND SOFTWAR *** PLEASE NOTE *** *** NOT FOR EXPORT ***