Okay making this real quick as a tip for those that might have to protect their zoo porn or other info from prying eyes (yes this includes authoritative ones too...) And no, hiding it in a folder named "Boring School Stuff" or such somewhere on your HDD isn't enough... Nor is just keeping it on a flash drive or external HDD (though that is better than having it on your computer all the time.)
What you need to do is use an Encryption software... For those that don't know an Encryption software essentially takes readable data and jumbles it up in a way that can only be deciphered using a passphrase or 'key' used in the encryption generation process. (If the encryption is worth a damn that is... Watch out for encryption softwares that have a 'Master Keys' which can be Software or Hardware Level in the case of Drive encryption...)
So anyways a BASIC example of an encryption is Ciphertext which I will try to demonstrate for those that don't understand the concept... Let's say we have a sentence like "This is a basic sentence that is easily readable..." (Pretend that sentence is your important data...)
We now we run it through an "Encryption Software" and the sentence (Your Data) now looks like this "Aopz(pz(h(ihzpj(zlualujl(aoha(pz(lhzpsf(ylhkhisl___"
It is now "Unreadable" without a Key to decipher. (But not really in this case as once again this example is a basic example and easy to figure out unlike real encryption which is vastly more complicated...) The key tells the computer that "a" is "t", "o" is "h", "(" is " ", and so forth.
So what we want to do is like above with your files but about 100,000+ times stronger and nearly impossible to break if done with a strong password... (We are literally talking about potentially hundreds or even thousands of years trying to brute force crack even a 16 digit long password with 4 Uppercase Letters, 4 Lowercase Letters, 4 Numbers and 4 Special Characters. Even on a powerful computer...)
This means that even if someone comes across your encrypted porn then will never ever be able to actually know what it is without the passphrase...
Now do not have the patience to write up a full tutorial here but I will point you to a good source of free encryption software and the direction of some tutorials that will get you started.
Firstly the software I recommend is Veracrypt. It's open source and very powerful while still being quite user friendly. Here is the site https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html
You can even set up hidden encrypted folders in your encrypted folders so you could give someone a password to a dummy folder in the case you were ever forced to. But that is a bit more advance and you can accidentally destroy files in the hidden folder if not careful. Only recommended for advance users. Here is a bit on that. https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Hidden Volume.html
Here is a good tutorial on what you need to do
The guy does a bit of talking but you can skip to 7:30 if not interested. You'll want to create an "Encrypted File Container" Like he does that is big enough to fit your 'Important Files...' And then some for future additions. Keep in mind that the file when encrypted will always take up it's max allocated size for security purposes...
So if you create 500GB folder it will take up 500GB even if you have only say 200 in it... I recommend making these folders on an external HDD and preferably keeping a backup on a different drive. "The encrypted file" can be moved from drive to drive without issue like say for a backup even after being modified like by adding new stuff into it.
For the password I recommend at least 20 Characters long with a mix of 5 Upper Case Letters, 5 Lowercase Letters, 5 Numbers and 5 Symbols or Special Characters. But avoiding phrases or easy patterns...
For example bad password: "Thisisabadpasswordeveniflong" Brute force hacking is able to use word pools to quickly crack even long passwords made of just words like that.
Also bad: "Pasword12344321Password" Once again word pools and common number pattern pools will crack that like nothing.
Good Password: "LiL90Ps3Ds@))&1776Ds" This password has a good mix of Letters Uppercase and Lower, Symbols and Numbers. All of which I could remember easily as it is a all has significance in a way (well made up significance...) "LiL" is talking of my favorite flower the Lily but with alternating shifts, "90" is referencing 1990 the year my favorite movie came out, "Ps3" is my favorite console, "DS" for Dark Souls which is a game I like, "@))&" is actually "2007" a special year to me for some reason BUT I am simply holding shift while typing it on my keyboard. "1776" Deceleration of Independence, and "Ds" favorite mobile console.
I can remember it but because of it's randomness and variety it would be incredibly hard to crack. Most password strength checkers say it would take literally Quatrillions of years to solves it at current computer speeds XD
Still even if you think you can remember it I recommend writing it down somewhere and hiding it very well. Say like in your car tucked away behind some fabric or taped under the foot of some heavy furniture just in case you do forget. Remember if you do, the data is as good as lost. You could scramble the written password in a way that means even if found it may not be used like by writing it backwards (good enough to stump most people.) Or say shifting everything down a few spaces but in a loop. For example "LiL90Ps3Ds@))&1776Ds" becomes "6DsLiL90Ps3Ds@))&177" but you need to remember this modification too.
That should hopefully be enough to get you started. Remember to be safe
I am tired and will spell check and maybe add to this tomorrow...
What you need to do is use an Encryption software... For those that don't know an Encryption software essentially takes readable data and jumbles it up in a way that can only be deciphered using a passphrase or 'key' used in the encryption generation process. (If the encryption is worth a damn that is... Watch out for encryption softwares that have a 'Master Keys' which can be Software or Hardware Level in the case of Drive encryption...)
So anyways a BASIC example of an encryption is Ciphertext which I will try to demonstrate for those that don't understand the concept... Let's say we have a sentence like "This is a basic sentence that is easily readable..." (Pretend that sentence is your important data...)
We now we run it through an "Encryption Software" and the sentence (Your Data) now looks like this "Aopz(pz(h(ihzpj(zlualujl(aoha(pz(lhzpsf(ylhkhisl___"
It is now "Unreadable" without a Key to decipher. (But not really in this case as once again this example is a basic example and easy to figure out unlike real encryption which is vastly more complicated...) The key tells the computer that "a" is "t", "o" is "h", "(" is " ", and so forth.
So what we want to do is like above with your files but about 100,000+ times stronger and nearly impossible to break if done with a strong password... (We are literally talking about potentially hundreds or even thousands of years trying to brute force crack even a 16 digit long password with 4 Uppercase Letters, 4 Lowercase Letters, 4 Numbers and 4 Special Characters. Even on a powerful computer...)
This means that even if someone comes across your encrypted porn then will never ever be able to actually know what it is without the passphrase...
Now do not have the patience to write up a full tutorial here but I will point you to a good source of free encryption software and the direction of some tutorials that will get you started.
Firstly the software I recommend is Veracrypt. It's open source and very powerful while still being quite user friendly. Here is the site https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html
You can even set up hidden encrypted folders in your encrypted folders so you could give someone a password to a dummy folder in the case you were ever forced to. But that is a bit more advance and you can accidentally destroy files in the hidden folder if not careful. Only recommended for advance users. Here is a bit on that. https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Hidden Volume.html
Here is a good tutorial on what you need to do
The guy does a bit of talking but you can skip to 7:30 if not interested. You'll want to create an "Encrypted File Container" Like he does that is big enough to fit your 'Important Files...' And then some for future additions. Keep in mind that the file when encrypted will always take up it's max allocated size for security purposes...
So if you create 500GB folder it will take up 500GB even if you have only say 200 in it... I recommend making these folders on an external HDD and preferably keeping a backup on a different drive. "The encrypted file" can be moved from drive to drive without issue like say for a backup even after being modified like by adding new stuff into it.
For the password I recommend at least 20 Characters long with a mix of 5 Upper Case Letters, 5 Lowercase Letters, 5 Numbers and 5 Symbols or Special Characters. But avoiding phrases or easy patterns...
For example bad password: "Thisisabadpasswordeveniflong" Brute force hacking is able to use word pools to quickly crack even long passwords made of just words like that.
Also bad: "Pasword12344321Password" Once again word pools and common number pattern pools will crack that like nothing.
Good Password: "LiL90Ps3Ds@))&1776Ds" This password has a good mix of Letters Uppercase and Lower, Symbols and Numbers. All of which I could remember easily as it is a all has significance in a way (well made up significance...) "LiL" is talking of my favorite flower the Lily but with alternating shifts, "90" is referencing 1990 the year my favorite movie came out, "Ps3" is my favorite console, "DS" for Dark Souls which is a game I like, "@))&" is actually "2007" a special year to me for some reason BUT I am simply holding shift while typing it on my keyboard. "1776" Deceleration of Independence, and "Ds" favorite mobile console.
I can remember it but because of it's randomness and variety it would be incredibly hard to crack. Most password strength checkers say it would take literally Quatrillions of years to solves it at current computer speeds XD
Still even if you think you can remember it I recommend writing it down somewhere and hiding it very well. Say like in your car tucked away behind some fabric or taped under the foot of some heavy furniture just in case you do forget. Remember if you do, the data is as good as lost. You could scramble the written password in a way that means even if found it may not be used like by writing it backwards (good enough to stump most people.) Or say shifting everything down a few spaces but in a loop. For example "LiL90Ps3Ds@))&1776Ds" becomes "6DsLiL90Ps3Ds@))&177" but you need to remember this modification too.
That should hopefully be enough to get you started. Remember to be safe
I am tired and will spell check and maybe add to this tomorrow...
