No crossplatform support, extra driver layers for the optical drives, questionable burning software, and no specified or controllable encryption level. Oh boy, where do I sign up?
I'll stick with RAR+PAR2 thanks. If it's good enough for the warez "industry" it's good enough for me.
Glad to see I'm not the only one using that solution.. I've had "bad things happen" writing precious data, especially to CD-RWs. PAR2 can be a life-saver.
I want to know something though.. instead of a windows-only solution such as Ricoh's - why not mass produce recordable media with a per-disc mfg-unique serial number, perhaps on a bar code imprinted on the inner ring (like GameCube discs have). That would allow, in conjunction with an additional program and key, per-media unique encryption keys. Treat the barcode data like a salt, or use it much like MS's EFS uses per-file keys, derived from some master passphrase (not stored on the media). Wouldn't that make more sense? And please... on CD-Rs? Prehistoric tech these days, for bulk optical data storage.
On pages one and five, you say "let's" us do something, etc. In English, the apostraphe indicates a contraction. For example, let's means let us. If you mean lets as in to allow, you say "lets" instead of "let's." A good example: This operation lets us enter the main menu. Please do fix. Thanks.
Since the speeling and the grammar police are in full force, I will chime in that the article was abit tough to read quickly - the English was abit stilted and the thought processes behind them were a little tough to discern. It also read abit too much like a brochure from Ricoh, and the screenshots were waaay over the top.
Also, why would Anandtech be working with Ricoh to bring us the latest in this type of news?
Isn't that just the weirdest thing to say and/or expect from a website like this?
This is aimed at managers and supervisors and directors of companies. They have data that they think should be protected before sending through the mail. Keep in mind, these people are just now getting computers with burners on their desktop or laptop. They only learned how to burn a CD six months ago and they don't care how much a CD costs, just that they can get one from the supply cabinet when needed.
If this is marketed properly in trade journals, they'll sell millions. This is encryption for dummies.
I can understand that hiding the data in another section of the CD makes it harder to extract, the system should not rely on this. Other tools could be used to copy or extract the raw data. It would have been better to have the software to use the CD to be self-suficient and require no driver to be installed. How long before zombe PC's are decrypting CD's ?
Webmaster: Can you please add the title of the article/thread to the top of the page a link to open the thread in a new window (or inline frame). This would make it easier to reference and quote.
Having a program ridealong on every disc is an unnecessary waste of space, once you've had the opportunity to install the driver once. Basically, this seems like an excuse to take BestCrypt or DriveCrypt type software to a per-disc fee structure. Only the software sounds much more limited. And it certainly locks you into Windows for data retrieval, later.
Oh, and what do you do when you want to back up these encrypted disks? And how come you can't browse the data in these files transparently, but have to copy them to the hard drive?
This is nothing different than having a file compressed with password. I wonder how well this system survives to a storage error... in a normal CD, only the "scratched" file is lost, in this way it might be the entire session is lost.
Agree with the "per disk" fee, and it is certanly too expensive, as you could buy 10 normal CDs for the price of one of these
EncryptEase is a good idea, but at a suggested retail of $6.99 for a 600MB CD-R disk and an actual selling price of more than $5 per CD-R it is probably too expensive to attract many home users. With the really cheap prices of CD-R blanks, CD-RW,DVD and DVD-RW blanks, more than $5 a disk for just 600MB of Data Storage, no matter how secure, seems very expensive for home users.
If Ricoh could do this for DVD and have it work for RW media it might make some cost sense.
$5 for one 600MB CD-R that has some burning/encryption software included on the disc, when instead you could buy about 25 normal CD-R discs for the same price. Oh, I can really see these special discs flying off the shelves. Not.
Strange that the price of the discs was not mentioned in the article...
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18 Comments
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MercenaryForHire - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
No crossplatform support, extra driver layers for the optical drives, questionable burning software, and no specified or controllable encryption level. Oh boy, where do I sign up?I'll stick with RAR+PAR2 thanks. If it's good enough for the warez "industry" it's good enough for me.
- M4H
VirtualLarry - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
Glad to see I'm not the only one using that solution.. I've had "bad things happen" writing precious data, especially to CD-RWs. PAR2 can be a life-saver.I want to know something though.. instead of a windows-only solution such as Ricoh's - why not mass produce recordable media with a per-disc mfg-unique serial number, perhaps on a bar code imprinted on the inner ring (like GameCube discs have). That would allow, in conjunction with an additional program and key, per-media unique encryption keys. Treat the barcode data like a salt, or use it much like MS's EFS uses per-file keys, derived from some master passphrase (not stored on the media). Wouldn't that make more sense? And please... on CD-Rs? Prehistoric tech these days, for bulk optical data storage.
NeonAura - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
On pages one and five, you say "let's" us do something, etc. In English, the apostraphe indicates a contraction. For example, let's means let us. If you mean lets as in to allow, you say "lets" instead of "let's." A good example: This operation lets us enter the main menu. Please do fix. Thanks.Questar - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
Maybe I'm just stupid, but I found the article very difficult to read. The grammer throughout the article is bad.kmmatney - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
Please shut down the Anandtech web site until all grammatical and spelling errors have been fixed.Phiro - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 - link
Since the speeling and the grammar police are in full force, I will chime in that the article was abit tough to read quickly - the English was abit stilted and the thought processes behind them were a little tough to discern. It also read abit too much like a brochure from Ricoh, and the screenshots were waaay over the top.Also, why would Anandtech be working with Ricoh to bring us the latest in this type of news?
Isn't that just the weirdest thing to say and/or expect from a website like this?
PuravSanghani - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
Thank you for letting us know. "Lets" go ahead and fix the error, shall we?NeonAura - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
You'd use "let's" in that situation. Learn your grammar, son!NeonAura - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
For info, I know that was a joke :PJonB - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
This is aimed at managers and supervisors and directors of companies. They have data that they think should be protected before sending through the mail. Keep in mind, these people are just now getting computers with burners on their desktop or laptop. They only learned how to burn a CD six months ago and they don't care how much a CD costs, just that they can get one from the supply cabinet when needed.If this is marketed properly in trade journals, they'll sell millions. This is encryption for dummies.
tygrus - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
I can understand that hiding the data in another section of the CD makes it harder to extract, the system should not rely on this. Other tools could be used to copy or extract the raw data. It would have been better to have the software to use the CD to be self-suficient and require no driver to be installed. How long before zombe PC's are decrypting CD's ?Webmaster: Can you please add the title of the article/thread to the top of the page a link to open the thread in a new window (or inline frame). This would make it easier to reference and quote.
tygrus - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
No edit ...spelling corrections ...
self-sufficient
zombie
chilled - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
Why isn't it just possible to have the software write the data that is pre-recorded onto the disc at burn time, instead of in advance?Wouldn't this mean that any media could be used, instead of paying $5 per CDR....?
artifex - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
Having a program ridealong on every disc is an unnecessary waste of space, once you've had the opportunity to install the driver once. Basically, this seems like an excuse to take BestCrypt or DriveCrypt type software to a per-disc fee structure. Only the software sounds much more limited. And it certainly locks you into Windows for data retrieval, later.Oh, and what do you do when you want to back up these encrypted disks? And how come you can't browse the data in these files transparently, but have to copy them to the hard drive?
Calin - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
This is nothing different than having a file compressed with password. I wonder how well this system survives to a storage error... in a normal CD, only the "scratched" file is lost, in this way it might be the entire session is lost.Agree with the "per disk" fee, and it is certanly too expensive, as you could buy 10 normal CDs for the price of one of these
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
EncryptEase is a good idea, but at a suggested retail of $6.99 for a 600MB CD-R disk and an actual selling price of more than $5 per CD-R it is probably too expensive to attract many home users. With the really cheap prices of CD-R blanks, CD-RW,DVD and DVD-RW blanks, more than $5 a disk for just 600MB of Data Storage, no matter how secure, seems very expensive for home users.If Ricoh could do this for DVD and have it work for RW media it might make some cost sense.
PrinceGaz - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
$5 for one 600MB CD-R that has some burning/encryption software included on the disc, when instead you could buy about 25 normal CD-R discs for the same price. Oh, I can really see these special discs flying off the shelves. Not.Strange that the price of the discs was not mentioned in the article...
Googer - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 - link
How is this differant or any better than the securecord offerd by my Plextor Premieum?http://plextor.com/english/products/Premium.html">http://plextor.com/english/products/Premium.html