BitClamp Released: A Preview from the Developer

A few weeks ago I gave the guys at MacApper a preview copy of my new software BitClamp. The response was pretty positive in that quick preview and I did my best to answer reader’s questions. Today Bitclamp is unveiled for all to use. What follows is developer’s preview of BitClamp so be warned this is not an unbiased review (as I’m the developer).

BitClamp was designed with one task in mind; to keep your data secure. These days we send a lot of files about the internet whether it be via email or posting them up on a server. A lot of the time you have no real idea what route your data is taking to reach its destination, so if you have sensitive data to send this can be a real concern. Enter BitClamp.

BitClamp was designed to be almost invisible in your workflow. It is super lightweight (10 megs as a Universal Binary, around 6 when “slimmed”) and super fast. We have optimized BitClamp’s encryption to the extent that any normal sized document (a large word document for example) will encrypt instantly, and not just on an octo Mac Pro either. In testing we managed to get instant encryption times for average documents on a G3 iBook. Obviously this is not the case for larger files but it is still incredibly fast.

We also offer optional GZip compression so users can trade compression time for disk space. This gives BitClamp a lot of added flexibility - as does its choice of algorithms. Unlike other encryption software BitClamp does not just offer the user one encryption algorithm, but a choice of three. You can choose between 128 Bit AES, 128 Bit Serpent and 64 Bit Blowfish implementations. So here you can trade speed for security.

Although BitClamp is designed to be “stripped down and tuned up” we offer another handy security feature for an added layer of protection. We call them “covert files”. I will say now that although they already offer current functionality, it is an idea we are looking to extend in the future. Encrypted files created using BitClamp do not have their own extension, but instead they inherit and mimic those of others. So you can call that encrypted, killer business plan “familypic.jpg”. To everyone it will appear to be a jpeg, however, when dropped on BitClamp, it will realise you want to decrypt it and prompt you for your password. At the moment if anything else tries to open the file it will appear “corrupt”, but in a future version these will appear as normal images.

As with most shareware, when you buy a license you are not just buying the current version, but also the right to updates of the software (all included up to 2.0). We have a detailed roadmap for BitClamp and this release is just a snap-shot of development. Some of the future features we will be adding include Applescript and Automator functionality, as well as the extensions to the covert files that were mentioned.

Also in Q1 2008 we will release a windows port of the program. It will very much be the same program, a Mac app running on Windows. The idea is to allow our users greater flexibility in who they can send encrypted files to.

Along with the launch of BitClamp we will also be releasing a free program that can decrypt files (with the correct password of course) but not encrypt. This will be Mac only initially until the Windows release. The idea here is so you are not limited to sending an encrypted file to someone (or somewhere) that has a full licensed copy of BitClamp -instead you can decrypt your files on any mac, with a free download.

So that is an idea of the theory behind BitClamp, for more information or to download, visit our website.

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