make word document invisible

[tablariddim]

Is there a way I can encrypt my MS Word documents to make them invisible?

[brokenpower]

truecrypt.org

it's an open source encryption program... check it out

[glaucon]

Why don't you just make the text white?

[Nasor]

What do you mean by "invisible"? The data will still have to be SOMEWHERE on your hard drive, so someone looking over your hard drive will be able to see it. But if you encrypt it, no one will be able to tell that it's a word document.

[RubiksMaster]

truecrypt.org

it's an open source encryption program... check it out +1

Not only do you need the key to decrypt, but you can also have plausible deniability, so that nobody will know that the word document even exists.

[Stryder]

What do you mean by "invisible"? The data will still have to be SOMEWHERE on your hard drive, so someone looking over your hard drive will be able to see it. But if you encrypt it, no one will be able to tell that it's a word document.

Might as well use stenography if you're just hiding a document.

[Nasor]

+1

Not only do you need the key to decrypt, but you can also have plausible deniability, so that nobody will know that the word document even exists.This could be good or bad, depending on your situation. A prosecutor who wanted to convict you of a computer crime might use the presence of truecrypt on your computer to explain to a jury why they didn't find the expected evidence of the crime on your computer. "Obviously he was using Truecrypt to hide it!" Just as no one else can prove that the document exists, you can't prove that it doesn't exist. Along similar lines, the presence of Truecrypt on your computer might motivate someone to just keep beating you to see if they can make you divulge any more passwords, even after you have already given them all your passwords (since with Truecrypt there's no way to prove that there isn't more data yet to be discovered with the right passowrd).

[brokenpower]

great thing about truecrypt is that you can actually hide truecrypt in itself

[tablariddim]

True crypt sounds too complicated for me. I'm afraid of tampering with my docs on such a radical scale; I'll probably forget my password and then be truly fucked.

[Nasor]

great thing about truecrypt is that you can actually hide truecrypt in itself
You can hide truecrypt in an encrypted volume, but I'm not sure you can hide the fact that there's an encrypted volume present on your harddrive.

[RubiksMaster]

You can hide truecrypt in an encrypted volume, but I'm not sure you can hide the fact that there's an encrypted volume present on your harddrive.I can think of ways. Truecrypt volumes are indistinguishable from random data, so any time you could reasonably use a random source of data is a place you can hide a volume. Another way is to rename the extension to something legitimate, such as .mp3, and put it in your music folder, nobody would be able to find it unless they listened to your entire library and found the one song that was corrupt, and they somehow knew that you had an encrypted volume, having ruled out everything else. Or just name it to a .sys extension and throw it in \system32.

If you are only concealing a few documents, it's incredibly easy to hide because of the small size required. Say you pick a random program installed on your computer and you see that it has a lot of configuration or data files. If you throw it in there, nobody will ever be able to tell, unless they could track down the developers of that app, and get them to reveal the exact structure of their configuration files (tip: try the "locale" files that get installed for multi-language support - you probably don't speak every one of those languages!).

In the cases I've mentioned, you have 100% plausible deniability. The only way anyone would ever be able to suspect which file was your volume, they would have to have open access to your computer at regular intervals, over a long period of time, in order to do a comprehensive analysis on which files are changing over time. That is so incredibly hard to do that nobody would ever care unless they suspected you of some sort of global terrorism (in which case they probably wouldn't even bother using normal legal channels).

[RubiksMaster]

Tablariddim, I just thought of something. Why not just rename the extension from .doc to something else, and stash it away somewhere inconspicuous? Someplace where there are a lot of files. When you need to edit or read the document, just name it back to what it was.

[Nasor]

I can think of ways. Truecrypt volumes are indistinguishable from random data, so any time you could reasonably use a random source of data is a place you can hide a volume. Another way is to rename the extension to something legitimate, such as .mp3, and put it in your music folder, nobody would be able to find it unless they listened to your entire library and found the one song that was corrupt, and they somehow knew that you had an encrypted volume, having ruled out everything else. Or just name it to a .sys extension and throw it in \system32.
It depends on who you're worried about finding your volume. If you think someone is going to just open up the file manager and start browsing around, that would probably work. But it's easy to write a program that examines the informational entropy of files to figure out which ones are encrypted/random and which ones are "real" files. Anyone who was serious about trying to find encrypted files on your computer would surely have such a utility.

[Vic the Trader]

This thread is loads of fun.

[John99]

put them on a thumb drive or write on paper and bury it somewhere.

[Betrayer0fHope]

This could be good or bad, depending on your situation. A prosecutor who wanted to convict you of a computer crime might use the presence of truecrypt on your computer to explain to a jury why they didn't find the expected evidence of the crime on your computer. "Obviously he was using Truecrypt to hide it!" Just as no one else can prove that the document exists, you can't prove that it doesn't exist. Along similar lines, the presence of Truecrypt on your computer might motivate someone to just keep beating you to see if they can make you divulge any more passwords, even after you have already given them all your passwords (since with Truecrypt there's no way to prove that there isn't more data yet to be discovered with the right passowrd).

That first part is called Circumstantial Evidence, aint it? I didn't read the rest.

[Vic the Trader]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incognito_(Linux)
In relevance, one of my favorite Linux distributions.

[Asguard]

Zip then encrypt. That way people wont even know its a word doc, further more it can then be pasworded as well. In fact if you zip it twice (ie zip the zip file) then even if they TRY to open it all they will see is another zip file

[Betrayer0fHope]

If you create a shortcut to a shortcut, you can click all you want, and you'll never get anywhere.