BitClamp1.5.1

Name: BitClamp
Price: 19.95 $
Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)

17 May 2008

Secure your data through encryption.

Follow this app

Overview

BitClamp, the encryption software for Mac OS X. Easily secure confidential documents and personal files with trusted 448-bit Blowfish, AES 256-bit and 256-bit Serpent encryption. Simply drag and drop the required files to encrypt your documents with industry-standard encryption methods for remarkable security.

BitClamp is the only brand of encryption software offering file mimicking - a feature used to hide encrypted data within other files for optimal security. In addition, smart Covert features can further disguise your files by giving them unrelated names. All of this and more makes BitClamp a trusted, easy-to-use and affordable encryption utility for Mac OS X. Download the free 15-day trial today to secure your files.

Features

Super fast encryption and decryption.
Gives users a choice between 3 industry standard algorithms:
- AES - 256 Bit
- Serpent - 256 Bit
- Blowfish - 448 Bit
Covert files allow users to cloak their files with unobvious names.
Optional GZip compression allows users to trade between encryption speed and disk space.
Free decryptor program allows anyone to decrypt files that you send them. With the password of course.
Growl notifications.
Updates via Sparkle

What's new in BitClamp

Version 1.5.1:

[NEW] Refresh button added to password generator.
[NEW] You now have the option to save files in the same directory as the first file in the encryption list.
[Change] Nag window is now displayed on launch if you have not registered the application.
[Fix] Less CPU usage.
[Fix] The preferences will no longer allow you to always mimic nothing, causing nil object errors.
[Fix] BitClamp will now check to make sure that the file you wish to mimic exists before mimicking and potentially erroring.

16 Reviews of BitClamp

It seems, that the software does not exist anymore. The download link does not work, the website does not work, hmm... .

(3)

I started the 15 day trial on this software, and on day one I had a query on how to make file mimicking work. I posted a query on the developers forum, and a day later I emailed their support email address. My trial period is now pretty much over, and I have had no reply to my forum posting, nor to the email I sent to their support address. This feels like abandonware to me, so I don't buy.

(1)

This is a brilliant program and a perfect solution for anyone who needs to keep anywhere from a few to a few hundred files secure and, if you use the file mimicking feature, hidden in plain sight. File mimicking is a very, very useful option and makes this app a superior solution to anything else I've tried, paid or not. The app is fast and easy to use and the developer is the most responsive and helpful I've yet run across.

The ability to take a text file, (or any file for that matter,) Compress it, Encrypt it, and hide it into a photo jpg, or xls, or any other kind of file is brilliant. Companies should be looking at this as standard practice for traveling. Look at people being stopped at airports and are forced to unlock their private company files for the authorities. Any file that's encrypted can be forced open, by coercion to the owner or by brute force to the file. But what if all that is sitting there is a bunch of photos of your family? That actually opens to the picture when launched? Only you know what's hidden and encrypted on top of that. I don't see Disk Utility doing that. Not that I have anything that's worth encrypting like that, but it's really nice to know it's there if I ever did. A must if you have something you would just rather keep to yourself, even if someone stole your computer, it would still be yours.

(2)

Avoid this, it is a realbasic gui glued to a closed-source 3rd party encryption library. I doubt there is any validation of this library and I wouldn't trust the code or the encrypted files at all. If you need more than OS X provides natively, look at GNU PGP or PGP Desktop.

Show comment (1)

Just like to add a quick comment: With 1.1 we added a new suite of algorithms and we are now stronger than disk utility. :-)

Good app but useless. You can use the OSX disk utility to create a 256bit encrypted disk image for free. In combination with automater it's also possible to create a program witch does the same job (also with drag & drop) for free. It's up to you to pay 20$ or do it for free with OSX disk utility.

Anyone using a recent Mac can use DiskUtility to do this for free. Simply open DiskUtility and click on Help in the menubar and search for AES. Help will tell you how to set up a VERY secure, and VERY quick to open... i.e. literally a few seconds DMG. The encrypted DMGs can be easily set for sizes from MBs to GBs in size. VERY easy (no tech-savy needed) with either 128 or 256 bit encryption.

First class support. I found a slight bug with the initial release version and sent off an e-mail to the developer. Within a matter of minutes I had a reply that told me he would look into it as quickly as possible. Less than 48 hours, there was a fix available and a personal e-mail from the developer telling me that the fix was available. After this, I registered my copy of BitClamp right away. How often can you find a first rate program with first rate support? In my 25 years of PC/Mac experience; not very often. Shawn

BitClamp is a great app. I'm very surprised to see the negative reviews on this. BitClamp is very different from the encryption appications I've seen so far (Data Guardian, Exces). Exces, for instance, creates a .dmg-like virtual disk that is encrypted with a password, but can only be opened using Exces. Data Guardian creates a database of encrypted files that hold information. But this is limiting, because it does not encrypt whole folders and other files. BitClamp, however, can encrypt multiple files, no matter what they are, and compresses them together into a file that does not rely on BitClamp to be opened. And besides, the UI is clean and minimalistic and is incredibly easy to use.

Initial reaction: Very simple to use without instruction (does exactly what it says on the tin!) but good documentation also included. Can see where comparisons to other apps are coming from but what sets Bitclamp apart for me compared to some other 'encryption only' apps is the covert filename eg: encrypted file/folder has an extension associated with other filetype as opposed to a bitclamp specific extension. As a teacher I have to keep sensitive info on students on the same laptop I may ask students to use. I can see this app being perfect for keeping this data in a single folder with a .avi extension for example so it appears as a movie. No fear of student poking around and finding data! Good to see developer keen to take suggestions for improvements - look forward to password confirmation being added in 1.1 as discussed in previous post.

Just a general comment: If you dont like the app as it is, thats fine, thats the point of these reviews, but at least suggest ideas for new features that would make the app better in your eyes instead of just slagging it off. Im making this app for you not just for the hell of it. If you dont like it tell me why! Then I can fix it :-) Also if you do like it, can you post? Ive had plenty of personal emails that contrast these reviews but no bona fide reviews. Thanks Btw - it is currently $10.

(0)

simply usless at the moment.. comparing to the whole choise you have for similar applications.. why should someone get (read pay), for an uncomplete application.. ??? just make it full operational then.. post it! enough of all these "brilliant guys" just able to copy others work/ideas and not even capable at the end to purpose a decent implementation... selling flowers is also as honest as work, and you may get even more $ with it ;-)

(I originally posted this as a reply) Hi guys, Thanks for the reviews, here are my responses: Just to get the light weight comment out of the way: it was 9 megs... then we put the 512x512 icon in for leopard :-) I think at the moment those apps that macroxx mentioned, look great for encryption... but only encrypted,compressed archives (we offer both). None have windows versions (not that we do yet). None offer covert file types. But more importantly, those are all compression apps, where encryption isnt really on their roadmap, its there but not a focus. BitClamp is in its infancy and we have a tonne of great features on the way (applescript, automator, completely covert files). We just shipped 1.0 don't write us off yet ;) As for the password confirmation field, as BitClamp was designed to be very, very quick to use. However, I see that it is a user's preference whether he wishes to confirm or not and this will be added in 1.1 :-). All input is greatly received, we are only at the start of this app's roadmap!

Show comments (2)

What does BitClamp offer ? - easy to use interface - encryption (up to 128 Bit AES) - Gzip compression - Price tag: $ 20 What does BetterZip offer ? - easy to use interface - encryption (up to 256 Bit AES) - several different compression options (encryptable are zip, 7zip and rar) - Price tag: $ 19.95 What does Compress Files offer ? - easy to use interface - encryption (up to 256 Bit AES) - several different compression options (encryptable are zip, 7zip and dmg) - Price tag: $ 9.95 What does SimplyRAR offer ? - easy to use interface - encryption (128 Bit AES) - rar compression - Price tag: $ 0 = free ! Comparison inspired by BitClamp's claim of being "Light weight" (quote from its description) : BitClamp's size: 13.1 MB BetterZip's size: 8.7 MB Compress Files' : 7.4 MB SimplyRAR's size: 1.4 MB Conclusion: there is a lot of competition out there. Other programs offer better encryption (as far as I know 256 Bit AES is more secure than 128 Bit AES) and/or they offer better compression formats (7zip and rar usually create smaller archives than Gzip) and/or they cost less. :-)

It seems attractive and well-done, I paid attention to it, since I am looking for a good software of that type. I downloaded it, but there is something which made me decide not to use it: when entering the password for encrypting/decrypting the files, there is no confirmation field. This is dangerous: if I mistype something without noticing it, I then won't be able to decrypt the file. Unless there is a good reason for not having a confirmation field, I would myself be hesitant to use such an application for encryption. If there is a reason for not having a confirmation field, it would be interesting to hear from the developer why? Anyway, good luck for what seems to have the potential for a nice product.

BitClamp1.5.1

Overview

What's new in BitClamp

Related articles

Join over 500,000 subscribers.

16 Reviews of BitClamp

More apps