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Hi! Author of Safe here. This is explained here: http://www.getsafe.org/about#howissafedifferentfromtruecrypt http://www.getsafe.org/about#howissafedifferentfr
by rian 12y ago
Hi! Author of Safe here.
This is explained here: http://www.getsafe.org/about#howissafedifferentfromtruecrypt http://www.getsafe.org/about#howissafedifferentfromtruecrypt. Here is a quick summary:
1. You can use your existing EncFS encrypted data on Mac/Windows.
2. 1:1 File encryption is much faster on network storage you don't control, like NFS, SMB, Drobo, Space Monkey, Dropbox, Google Drive. Most of their drivers/protocols are file-based. TrueCrypt is block-based, i.e. all data is stored as a single potentially giant file. This affects the performance of algorithms focused on caching and deduplication.
3. I designed Safe to be much easier than TrueCrypt to use. Try making a new encrypted disk with TrueCrypt, then do the same process with Safe and you'll see what I mean. TrueCrypt is very intimidating to set up for people who don't intimately understand how cryptography works. Safe just chooses the most secure defaults.
As for your second concern about caching. I can guarantee that no data is cached to the local disk unencrypted when using Safe. Don't just take my word for it, verify yourself. See http://www.getsafe.org/about#system_changes_more_info http://www.getsafe.org/about#system_changes_more_info
Safe is not a competitor to TrueCrypt. They are different tools for different situations. I use both depending on the nature of the data I'm keeping private. Safe is another tool in this ecosystem and the main goal is to help more people take control of how their data is stored and transmitted and hopefully bootstrap mainstream digital privacy awareness.
- mhurron 12y agoI was just looking for something like this, and this looked great, until ... What system changes does Safe make at installation? Enable pagefile/swap encryption Disabling hibernate mode I don't need or want this. I want my desktop to hibernate and I don't need the swap file encryption. My use case is JUST encrypting files as they sit on a cloud storage provider. If I wanted that type of protection I'd already be using full disk encryption on my desktop. Are the system changes optional or do they have to be enabled to use Safe?
- rian 12y agoCurrently yes, but I've gotten a lot of the same feedback and I'll make it optional in the next release (within the week :) Follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/safe_app http://twitter.com/safe_app) or GitHub (http://github.com/safeapp/safe http://github.com/safeapp/safe) to be notified when it happens. (If you can't wait, you can always edit the source and produce your own build. Those system changes aren't necessary for Safe to function.)
- mhurron 12y agoWell with those changes this might be exactly what I needed.
- MichaelGG 12y agoThanks for the useful response. I'd suggest putting these benefits in the Safe page instead of just deferring to a much more complicated page on EncFS as to the "pros and cons". As far as WebDAV, are the URLs never exposed in any way? A user might paste it into a third party program which doesn't use the Windows client. MS might also make changes if this isn't a documented or supported view. I'm not saying it's definitely a flaw, it just seems a bit scary. Out of curiosity, how are large files handled? Like if I move an HD movie file into my encrypted store then watch it - does my commit suddenly shoot up?
- rian 12y agoFor the WebDAV RAMDisk, Safe will not use more than 1/5 of your commit so you're limited by that.