Alligator Data Guard

If your friends or room mates have the habit of going through your personal files, you should encrypt your data. Finding an encryption utility is not difficult, but you may want something that provides more than hiding your files and protecting them with a password. Besides encrypting files with a password or a key file, Alligator Data Guard can also retrieve information about your hardware ID and use it to encrypt your files. It also uses the well known AES encryption algorithm, as well as the Haval 256-bit Hash Message Authentication Code, to verify the integrity of your data.

Alligator Data Guard's demo version has a series of restrictions, but you can still use its core functions. It does not take long to install the application and you can use it on almost any Windows version.

The software displays different options on its user interface for encrypting and decrypting files, folders and disks. Encryption or decryption processes are prepared on a separate window. Besides selecting input and output files and typing a password, you can also select a key file, set the program to wipe the original data and use your unique hardware ID to encrypt the files. You will find similar options, regardless of what you intend to encrypt.

Key files can be generated on a different window. After you type a word or phrase, you must hit the Generate button to create a long and complex key, which can be saved as a file. Alternatively, you can select a different option, to generate a random key, without typing anything, or generate one just by moving the mouse.

Hardware ID information is provided for the computer' s motherboard, video controller and hard disk. In addition, the application displays your BIOS version, your primary MAC address and it creates a unique ID for the entire hardware configuration. If certain files are too sensitive to fall in the wrong hands, even if they are encrypted, you can use Alligator Data Guard to wipe them. This feature will overwrite the targeted data multiple times, making the files impossible to recover.