Link Safe

The out-of-the-box encryption available on Android devices works similarly to the whole-disk approach of Windows’ BitLocker, so once you activate it, everything on the device is scrambled. To activate it, head to Settings, then Security, then choose “Encrypt device ”. The process of encryption is a long one - allow an hour, and longer if you own a device with a lot of onboard storage. Once it’s done,you'll be prompted to enter a PIN or password every time you turn on your device. You can also choose to encrypt your external storage, if your device is equipped with a microSD expansion slot.

Android’s built-in encryption system isn’t without compromises. Not only does the initial setup take a long time, it’s handled in software- so you may see an impact on performanceas processor cycles are diverted to the job of decrypting every single file and app that loads in from memory. lt’s a one-way street, too: if you decide you no longer want to use encryption, the only thing you can do is perform a factory reset.

As with iOS, there are plenty of third-party alternatives available on Google Play. For cloud-storage users, Boxcryptor (see p62) will allow you to access and secure files stored on Dropbox and Google Drive, while the free app Secret Space Encryptor (see walktbrough, p62) offers not only file encryption but a host of security tools. You can encrypt individual pieces of text, or scramble entire files or folders using industry-standard, 2.5 6-bit AES encryption.

You could also try the excellent EDS Lite, which is also free. This allows you to create the encryption key it will be impossible to decode them. The process takes seconds, rather than the hours it might take to securely overwrite every file in tum, so if encrypted container files on your Android device to store sensitive information; for 6$, the Premium edition adds the ability to access files from directly within them.