

Why wouldn't Apple help? Because the moment a back door or similar hack exists, it becomes a target, a prize for the bad guys. The FBI had to hire hackers to get into the phone. But no such back door existed, and Apple refused to create one. When the FBI needed information from the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, they asked Apple for a back door to get past the encryption. Using a VPN is a great way to protect your internet traffic when you're traveling, but it's not a solution for encrypting your local files. Of course, the VPN's encryption doesn't just magically rub off on files you share. However, unless you're connected to a secure HTTPS website, your traffic is not encrypted between the VPN server and the site. From your PC to the VPN company's server, all your data is encrypted, and that's a great thing. You can use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, to encrypt your own internet traffic.

Whole-disk encryption is an effective line of defense for a single device, but it doesn't help when you need to share encrypted data. In this roundup, we're specifically looking at products that encrypt files, not at whole-disk solutions like Microsoft's Bitlocker. File Encryption, Whole-Disk Encryption, and
