Newbie naive question, perhaps - - be kind

I'm merely a potential end user of some form commercial encryption
program primarily to protect some sensitive psychiatric case histories
(as well as other files) from the curious eyes of the computer service
kids. Although the 2 questions I have show my naivety in the field of
cryptography and may sound simpleminded, this group seems to have the
source of the best answers. Doing a bit of "homework," I found little
help* in reviewing several months of posts here (too technical for me)!

1) Some of the commercial programs, such as Cryptainer, seem to suggest
that their encryptions are essentially unbreakable: trillions of years
of computer time would be required to break their Blowfish and AES
encryption schemes in the program. Yet they suggest long passwords or
pass phrases to make hacking these passwords "more difficult." They
encouraged written questions from potential buyers, but have not
answered my question: isn't the program as weak as its weakest link,
e.g. the password?? ("Wheel of Fortune" comes to mind: "I'll buy a
vowel, please.)

2) if these encryption schemes are so unbreakable, and commercially
available, why haven't I heard news items describing "terrorists" and
their use of unbreakable encrypted e-mail ("tomorrow at 10:15, Sidney,
we light the fuse")? Can I assume that "hackability" or unbreakability
is merely a matter of degree, and that the police or local computer
repairman will in all likelihood be intrigued in my newly encrypted data
files and e-mail and therefore try all the harder to see what's within?

Thanks in advance

Art
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*actually I have found review of this forum useful: don't believe the
commercial claims of unbreakable security
Received on Mon Oct 17 20:48:18 2005