IF YOU WANT TO HIDE COMPUTER FILES FROM PRYING EYES...

Byline: Bill Husted Cox News Service

You don't have to be sneaky or a crook to need to hide a computer file.

For instance, I doubt you'd want your income tax records, or even a letter to your Aunt Sally, to be read by someone else. There are elaborate commercial programs designed to encrypt files so they can't be read without a password. But that's overkill for most of us.

There are ways to stash a file away from prying eyes that don't need a special program. Think of these techniques as putting a cheap padlock on your garden shed. It's not like locking your rake and lawn mower up in Fort Knox, but it's plenty of security for ordinary folks.

So let's talk about some hiding techniques.

If you use Windows 95 you can hide a folder full of files from prying eyes. Again, this method is far from foolproof. But it should foil someone who is casually browsing through your stored files.

Start by opening Explorer, the program that lets you navigate the folders in your computer. Go to the "options" item under the View heading on the menu. Pick the option that says "Hide files of these types." Click on OK and go back to the main Explorer screen. Open the folder containing the files you want to hide. Then, using the Edit menu, pick "select all." Then press the right mouse button and select "properties" from the menu items. Now click on "hidden." The next time you open that folder, it will seem to be empty.

To reverse the process and make the files appear again, just go back to the first step and change your selection under the View heading from "hide all files of these types" to "show all files."

Let me re-emphasize that this is just a simple technique. It works on the out-of-sight, out-of-mind theory. But it is fairly easy to defeat.

The next technique is probably a little more secure. It takes advantage of the fact that a modern computer program may contain literally thousands of files divided among several directories. It's really simple, but amazingly secure.

Just find a directory on your hard disk that is crammed full of program files - stuff with extensions such as .exe, .com, .dll, .sam, etc. Then rename the file you want to hide with an official sounding name such as MPLEX.DLL and move it to that directory. The odds of a casual browser finding the file are very slim. When you want to use the file again, just rename it (click on it and use the right mouse button to pop up menu choices, including rename). For instance, if it originally was called SALLY.DOC, give it that name again. It'll work just fine.

If you ever use the PKZIP and PKUNZIP programs to compress files, they can be used to give added security. Compress the file you plan to hide. You'll note that, once it is compressed, it'll have .ZIP as the last part of its name. Rename the file - but don't use .ZIP in the new name. Hide it using one of the techniques we've already mentioned. When you get ready to use the file, rename it with .ZIP as the last part of the name, decompress it and use it.

But what if the files you want to hide are too sensitive to trust to these really simple methods and you don't want to use a commercial encryption program?

Use an old-fashioned technique. Keep those files on a floppy disk and hide the floppy disk in your closet.