FORMICA  Nearly the same $ as 1Password, but only 1/5 the features. Safe Deposit Box is OK, but implemented badly.

Today I downloaded and futzed around for an hour or so with AllSecure 1.2.1, and my judgement is that it's very pretty but has nowhere near the motherload of 1Password's features for storage, management and automatic entry of passwords that utilize Mac OS X's well regarded Keychain and, even now better — the 1PW Agile keychain, that make your Internet experience much easier by entering all your usernames and passwords for you. 1PW and the Agile keychain integrate with all 8 of the most popular Mac Internet browsers, while AllSecure only works with Safari. 1PW also does double duty in Internet security, anti-phishing, web form filling, automatic strong password generation, and a bunch of other serious functions that are really useful on a daily basis. Plus, 1Password has an iPhone app that implements many of those functions on your cell phone/PIM, and lets you take all of it with you securely wherever you go.

Several of AllSecure's features are "cool," but aren't as practical as they are pretty. The most notable swing-and-a-miss is AllSecure's Safe Deposit Box. The description from AllSecure's Help file says "A Safe Deposit Box is a kind of AllSecure item that allows you to securely store up to 2GB worth of compressed files and folders. Files stored in a Safe Deposit Box are ZIP-compressed and AES-256 encrypted." This could be a terrific and quite useful feature — if it weren't so poorly implemented. After Safe Deposit Box compresses and encrypts your document, it locks it up inside a great graphical safe deposit box, but that's where the feature's namesake and purpose falls apart because the follow-through is a choke: It's just a little too complicated for regular use; it doesn't automatically delete the original file after it is zip-compressed and archived (and isn't the idea of this feature to make sensitive files not only inaccessible but invisible?). It should at least have a preference to allow the user to elect automatic deletion of the original file after compressing and archiving it — otherwise it just gives the file owner a little graphical thrill, but then leaves the original uncompressed, unencrypted file lying around for any other user to discover.

I know I come off as a friend, stockholder, or just plain BFF in the employ of 1Password, but I swear that I am in no way associated with that company or its personnel. I just really love 1Password, and if you checkout their VersionTracker or MacUpdate webpages (addresses below), you'll see that a lot of people are so enamored with that hunka hunka burnin' shareware that most have morphed into 1Password evangelists (kinda like Mac enthusiasts/perverts used to be about anything ‘Apple’, or at least we used to be, back before the iPod(s), the iPhone(s), and even OS 10.5 caught fire and people finally realized that Apple products — finally now including Mac computers — are simply better, and in fact there’s really very little in this world that ISN’T better than Microsoft products). Anyway, my point is that my negative appraisal of AllSecure is authentic — it is not a planted reacharound by or for the folks at 1Password developers Agile Web Solutions. Nowadays I'm a Cultural Geography professor, but I used to run White House political public relations initiatives for Bill Clinton, and later on for my own boutique PR firm. I occasionally miss my old line of work (and I dearly miss the coin), but sometimes I get my fix by temporarily shilling for an organization or product I like in a public forum like this. Today I found an opportunity to do just that by evaluating AllSecure, which really was fun to toy with (emphasis on "toy") and pass judgement on, but it gratified me far more by giving me a chance to publicly hawk one of my favorite Mac apps.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29889

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21711/1password  
(Version 1.2.1)

WILLIAM25  I like this software a lot on a PPC iMac G5. Works great.  
(Version 1.1.1)

WRK24WHEEL  No iphone or palm app available. This is a deal breaker for me. Who uses just one computer anymore?  
(Version 1.0.2)

ANDREWM  The info link is redirected now to new program called AllSecure - "Formerly RiftVault" as stated on the page - and it is version 1.0 now....

Same screenshot and same price as RiftVault...

What is this? Where did RiftVault go?

What about us who purchased RiftVault? There is no option for us to update to AllSecure...

Smells scam...  
(Version 1.3)

MAC724  This app is very interesting. Although it's a bit strong on the eyes (too dark), the newest version of RiftVault is a big step up from the last. Web autofilling actually makes the app useful. Also, the developer is very responsive. I sent them a few suggestions and was told they would be added in a future version. Seems like the developer wants to make this into a great app.   
(Version 1.2)

JELLYBELLY  Totally useless.

If I can view the contents of the encrypted disk in the application itself, that would be good. But I can't. And because of that, I see no difference that just using Apple's built-in, easy-to-use (with no atrocious brushed metal look) Disk Utility!  
(Version 1.0.1)

VB-23  I commend the developer for finding a way to make brushed metal look even more atrocious.  
(Version 1.0)

[AN.DY]  Why always Rijndael (AES)? And "only" SHA-256 hashing? Why not Serpent and Twofish as an option? Or better, a Rijndael-Serpent-Twofish cascade (...future proof)? Why not SHA-512 and/or Whirlpool hashing?

But the app looks great! Cool graphics!

// From the Serpent homepage:

(www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/serpent.html):

"It was a finalist in the AES competition. The winner, Rijndael, got 86 votes at the last AES conference while Serpent got 59 votes, Twofish 31 votes, RC6 23 votes and MARS 13 votes. So NIST's choice of Rijndael as the AES was not surprising, and we had to content ourselves with silver in the `encryption olympics'. Serpent and Rijndael are somewhat similar; the main difference is that Rijndael is faster (having fewer rounds) but Serpent is more secure."

// From Wikipedia:

"...The XSL attack, if effective, would weaken Serpent (though not as much as it would weaken Rijndael, which became AES). However, many cryptanalysts believe that once implementation considerations are taken into account the XSL attack would be more expensive than a brute force attack."  
(Version 1.0b3)

THE MAN IN THE BLACK SEDAN  The Developer really needs to learn how to create compressed DMGs, downloading a 20mb dmg for a 8mb application is obviously a horrible idea.  
(Version 1.0b1)

RONL  OS X has the same ability for FREE.

Disk Utility > New Image > Encryption

Create less than 1 MB to multi-GB dmg images that open in 1-2 seconds!

Don't take my word for it try it. You don't have to be a techy to do this. Apple's made it incredibly simple.  
(Version 1.0b1)