Windows Phone Thoughts: Tales from Encrypt: SecureNow 2006 v1.00 Reviewed

Decryption
I launched the application and clicked the Decrypt button to remove the encryption from the text file. The application asked for the password for the encryption operation. I intentionally typed the wrong password and the program displayed an error stating that the decryption process failed.


Figure 14: Typing the wrong decryption password results in an error.

It then went through another “remapping” where it hung for a few seconds and then returned my to the explorer view. Similar to its behavior when encrypting, I had to navigate back to the location of my text file to try again. I then typed the correct password and the application stated that the decryption process had completed. Sure enough, I was able to open the text file and view the original comments. I did the same for the PDF file and was able to successfully remove the encryption and view the file although it took a few seconds longer than it did when decrypting the text file.

Conclusions
SecureNow 2006 is a very straightforward application that does one thing (encryption/decryption) and does it fairly well. However, I would have liked to see a few enhancements.

First, the registration process should not use a free email account. A more polished and professional approach would be to receive a license key at the time of purchase. Second, documentation should be either incorporated into the application or supplied in a file that’s included with the download of the installation executable. Although the application is simple to use, there were some things I had to figure out (e.g., that the password is tied to the session and not to the individual file). Third, improvements could have been made to usability. For example, the program should return the user to the location of the file after encryption or decryption instead of to the root of the directory structure. It was a pain to navigate back down to the file after each operation.

Finally, the application should allow the ability to encrypt entire folders and allow users to work on encrypted files instead of having to un-encrypt them first. Hopefully, one of the future “free updates” from Rural Network Solutions will incorporate these enhancements and make it into a better product.

Anjuan Simmons is an information technology consultant specializing in CRM technical implementations (with a focus on Siebel technical architecture and integration). He lives with his wife, two children and many gadgets in Houston, Texas, USA