Not long ago I received an email from Aiko Solutions asking if I would be interested in reviewing the latest release of SecuBox. Interestingly enough I found myself saying sure. I say interestingly, because in all honesty most people find security related products a whole lot of wasted time and energy and encryption software (let’s be perfectly honest here) isn’t exactly going to excite the masses. Come to find out, the more I looked at SecuBox and the more I thought about it, this program could be a serious help to a lot of people … including a lot of our friends at the government.

A few years back things started to take a swing towards the more secure. We all started thinking about it, Microsoft started telling us about it, and our friends in the Linux world started gloating about it. We all know there’s some issues with security when it comes to our PCs and we all know we would like to keep our systems as leak free as possible. But, I think during this time a lot of people really didn’t stop to think "What about this mobile device and the information I carry around on it?"

Think about that for a second. You have a computer at home … maybe an older one with 40GB worth of hard drive, maybe a shiny new model with 1/2TB worth of hard drive. No matter the size, how much space do you have in your mobile? Given how little space you have, how much of that is stuff would make you a SIMPLE target for a good scam artist? Do you have your credit information on there? How about a couple old tax documents? I know I do…

Here’s another one. Do you work for the government? How much stuff on that government owned device could get you in some serious hot water if it fell into the wrong hands? Are you under order to have your device and all the data on it secured? I know some agencies are … Well SecuBox from Aiko Solutions can help!

CONTINUE ON FOR THE FULL REVIEW

What is it?

SecuBox is an encryption program for the masses. It uses a simple interface (don’t let that fool you) that allows the user to easily setup a directory that will be encrypted with an AES 256bit encryption algorithm and forever locked away from prying eyes. Once this directory is configured it is basically off limits to everything except SecuBox and you. If anyone steals the device or you lose it, you can sleep soundly knowing there’s a whole lot of nothing that can be done with that directory.

Key Features:

• AES 256-bit encryption algorithm is used for encrypting the data, SHA 512 for generating the encryption key
• Encryption key backup
• Simple interface – easy to use
• On the fly encryption/decryption
• File Explorer Integration
• No hidden keys, no back door, no way for anyone but you to get at the data.

Can I see some screen shots already?!

Sure … why not.

HAHA…. After all that reading to get to this point you didn’t think I’d let you off that easy did you!?!?!

Ok … enough joking around. Let’s look at what SecuBox does.

To create a secure storage area, the first thing you need to do is click on create and then click on Browse

Creating a storage location is just like any other operation you would do to save something on your device. Give it a folder name and tell it where to store it (device or storage card). When you click save you get put back to the main screen and can choose your size options (plan for future growth!) as well is if you want the file to be read only, hidden, and even more secure by removing that last access date. Ultimately I think for the average user you can safely ignore every option but the size. For those of you who value high security above all else – this is one time when security by obscurity may actually prove handy! When you’re all set – click next.

Ok – time saving tip – Click Quick Create! If you do not select Quick Create you can plan on waiting for quite a while as the program will completely fill the directory with random data. I’m not sure what purpose this ultimately serves… but by clicking Quick create the secure file storage is created without any "filler". Time difference between Quick create and slow create for a 10MB file was about 2 minutes. 200MB and I fell asleep. Sorry.

Turns out "monkey" isn’t a very good password! Pick a stronger password – but one you are going to remember and click ok. You’re off to the races!

Quick Tip: Passwords don’t just have to be a single word. I typically use a sentence and change some letters to numbers and add a couple other characters to the end for fun.

Not too sure why I have to click ok to format the storage… but whatever. It takes a couple seconds. and then you’re done! Notice that my secure directory is already mounted and ready for use.

This is what the secured directory looks like sitting on my storage card. If I click on this icon it will launch SecuBox for me. This is a little confusing to start with, as you would expect to be able to navigate to this directory and see your files. However … look at the program screen shot again and you’ll notice that it has been "mounted". Well, when a SecuBox directory has been mounted it actually shows up as a storage location – much like an SD or CF card. Here’s what I mean:

Now you can click on the SecuBox directory in the main file tree … and there’s your documents (or lack there of in my demo case). Clicking on any one of the documents and their default application will launch. Browsing for any files within your secured directory functions as you would normally expect.

Adding files to the directory is as simple as copy or move within the file explorer. Most moves within the file system are pretty quick and unless you’re dealing with a very large file I’ve not seen much in the way of noticeable delay.

Options and more

I was quite impressed with the help system. There’s a ton of good information in there about encryption, as well as the options within SecuBox – including how to manipulate the program via command line. Also be aware that you will want to hit the settings menu the first time through the program to make sure that the options are set to keep the program running when you close the window. I know this gave me fits the first time through as I couldn’t figure out what was causing the storage to go away.

Up near the top of this review you’ll remember me mentioning something about no back doors… so another point here is to backup your encryption key. Without that if your device goes downhill and you don’t have the key – there’s nobody who can help you get it back and I mean nobody!

Example: A 256 bit key requires not merely twice as long to crack as a 128 bit key, but rather 2¹²⁸ times as long. If a device could be built that could check a billion billion (10¹⁸) AES keys per second, it would require 3,671,743,063,080,802,746,815,416,825,491,118,336,290,905,145,409,708 (3X10⁵¹) years to exhaust the 256 bit key space. (source) — so don’t plan on getting in without the keys!

Concerns/Bugs

I really didn’t have many, and most of my problems were resolved thanks to the excellent support received from Aiko Solutions. Make sure you check the options tab if you don’t like the way the program acts, as I found most of my problems were just a configuration issue that was easily resolved. Other than that the only complaints I have is the creation time of the storage (see above) which could have been a lot faster when not selecting the quick mode, and that browsing for your secure storage after clicking the "browse" button as in the screen shot below is very slow. I have been told this will be resolved in a future build so keep an eye out for that.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Security in a box. Ok well not really, but you get the idea. Overall I think Secubox is a great program with a worthy cause that deserves a good look if you’re concerned about the safety of the information on your device. I know many of us  have already invested in eWallet, FlexWallet or some of the other wallet applications out there to secure our information, but in reality those programs only serve a limited set of purposes and don’t do anything for the word documents, excel spreadsheets, text files, notes and things of that nature that we keep on our mobiles. SecuBox definitely fills a much needed void for Windows Mobile users!

SecuBox from Aiko Solutions is available for $39.95 from the JAMM Store.

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1. SecuBox 1.4 gets Windows Mobile 6 gold seal of certification
2. SecuBox v1.2 – Pocket PC Encyption
3. Another JAMM Store Discount – for SecuBox (security App)
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5. Review: CodeWallet Pro 2006 — One Small Space, A Million Giant Uses