WinZip Encryption Password Security (2017)
9 years ago I wrote a post on WinZip Encryption Security , that post has received tens of thousands of visits over the years and continues to be pretty popular, but it is high time for that advice to be refreshed. The advice below also applies to 7-Zip , which also supports the same type of encryption as WinZip. Do not use WinZip ‘Standard Zip 2.0 Encryption’ WinZip pre-version 9 only offered WinZip's own proprietary encryption algorithm called Zip 2.0 encryption, which is broken, so never use WinZip pre-version 9 or the “WinZip's Zip 2.0 Encryption” as an option, as passwords of any strength can very easily be recovered with third party cracking tools. WinZip versions 9 to 21 defaults to use the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scrutinised and US government agency approved encryption algorithm called the A dvanced Encryption Standard (AES) - http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cavp/documents/aes/aesval.html . This is great...