Interscope BlackBox 4.2 (build 4.2.0.1610) 15th December, 2005 1) Can now encrypt files with a validity period. Decryption is only possible in this timeframe, attempt to decrypt outside of it will invalidate the file (destory its authentication information, so that is cannot be decrypted anymore). This feature requires Internet connectivity to a secure timeserver. 2) The password dialog is now dynamic, only showing settings for the selected features 3) Files with different passwords can now be stored in the same self-extractor archive 4) Added support for different algorithms in the self-extractor archives 5) There is now a new command Wipe Recycle Bin integrated in the context menu of the Recycle Bin 6) Created self-extractor archives can now be automatically zipped 7) After extracting files from a self-extractor archive, a summary of the files that could not be extracted is shown 8) Added group policy support for defining the time servers to use Interscope BlackBox 4.1 (build 4.1.0.1600) 5th December, 2004 1) Added support for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2003 server family 2) Added support for Microsoft Outlook Express 6.03 3) Added support for Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003 4) Fixed several display problems in the settings dialog 5) Files can now also be compressed before encryption 6) Now supports encrypting and shredding files larger than 4GB 7) Self-extracting archives can now be larger than 4GB 8) German version is available Interscope BlackBox 4.0 (build 4.0.0.1401) 29th March, 2001 1) Added text encryption to the system tray interface. This allows you to encrypt the (text) context of the clipboard and of any window and greately simplifies sending encrypted information by e-mail, with any kind of e-mail client 2) Interscope BlackBox now integrates into Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Microsoft Outlook Express 4.x and 5.x, broadening your options and simplifying secure messaging 3) Improved cryptosystem with revised security and faster processing 4) Far more powerful file wiping than in previous versions is built-in, including free disk space wiping and swap file clearing on shutdown. Wipe methods include Gutmann (35 passes), US Dept. of Defense (7 passes), overwrite with pseudorandom data (variable number of passes) and overwrite with custom patterns (variable number of passes) 5) Up to 250 wipe steps can be performed 6) It is now possible to also wipe the swap file on reboot (Windows NT/2000 only) 7) BlackBox can now automatically check for updates 8) When decrypting a file or a chunk of text encrypted with and algorithm for which you do not have and encryption engine installed, BlackBox can automatically download and install it for you (opposed to sending you to a web page as in earlier versions) 9) Much improved user interface, with too many minor features and fixes to list here 10) Easier and more fine grained customization of features and settings 11) Predefined levels of user interface and security settings, making configuration as simple as three clicks for the majority of the users 12) Support for keyboard shortcuts saves you the hassle of having to go to the Start Menu or the system tray to access most BlackBox features 13) Improved command line interface 14) Updated help file, web site and support pages Interscope BlackBox 3.3 (build 3.3.0.502) 8th March, 2001 1) Fixed several issues affecting stability on Windows 98 and Windows ME 2) Fixed problems with decryption after the trial period is over Interscope BlackBox 3.2 (build 3.2.0.400) 1st November, 2000 1) Added command line interface to BlackBox, so that now it is possible to run unattended encryption and decryption jobs 2) Fixed problem with creation of self extractor resulting in an empty (no files added, thus invalid) .exe archive when all the files selected to encrypt into a self-extractor are either excluded by exclusion rules in effect or are already encrypted and multiple encryption is disabled (thus the files are not added in the self-extractor archive) 3) Fixed problem causing files date/times not to be restored correctly after decryption on Windows 9x and ME systems 4) Self-extracting archives can now also store (and restore) empty folders 5) Updated the help file Interscope BlackBox 3.1 (build 3.1.0.211) 24th April, 2000 1) Fixed problem with security set consolidation causing infinite recursion when attempting to consolidate into a folder that is included in the security set or is a subfolder of some folder included in the set 2) BlackBox now asks for overwrite permission when consolidating security set without retaining the directory structure 3) Fixed problem with encryption into self-extracting archive with compression and the option to remove originals after encryption turned on not deleting the original files 4) Improved integration into third-party shells (Windows Explorer replacements) 5) Fixed dates in overwrite prompt dialog of self-extractor archives 6) Fixed problem with self-extractor archives not storing topmost empty folders of selectiong (e.g. if user selected for encryption only folders that were themselves only containing other subfolders, at extract time the directory structure was restored starting with the first folder that contained at least a file) 7) Increased the supported wipe steps to 50 Interscope BlackBox 3.0 (build 3.0.0.201) 3rd February, 2000 1) BlackBox evolved into an open framework for file encryption. It now supports encryption engine plug-ins that implement modular data encryption. By default, BlackBox comes with the traditional 56-bit DES engine, but additional engines (Blowfish, RC4, IDEA etc.) are available from http://www.essentialdetails.com/blackbox/engines.asp 2) New BlackBox Engine SDK for writing your own encryption engine is now available. All encryption engines are based on COM technology and this lets anyone write its own, using any development tool (C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, Delphi etc.) (s)he wishes. BlackBox will then recognize all installed engines without any additional configuration or reinstallation. Get the SDK from http://www.essentialdetails.com/blackbox/sdk.asp 3) You can now send your files securely by e-mail in a snap using the new context menu item "Encrypt and Send..." 4) Processing of multiple files is now faster, due to the fact that worker threads that do the actual compression/encryption are now recycled 5) New authentication method that uses TripleDES improves encryption strength 6) It is now possible to configure BlackBox to not store the owner login name in the encrypted files 7) Added compression support to self-extractor archives 8) New feature to consolidate (copy/move all objects in) security set to a specified folder in one simple step 9) BlackBox now displays a tooltip when a .des or .ibx file is selected in Windows Explorer. The tooltip shows the encryption details (encryption algorithm used to encrypt the file, original size, etc.) that you can also see on the Encryption page in the file properties dialog 10) All encryption-specific items in file and folder context menus can now be grouped in a submenu, thus reducing pollution of the Windows Explorer context menus 11) BlackBox no longer displays encryption-related items in the context menu when the Start button is right-clicked 12) New tutorial on file security, secure information distribution and safe disposal of your old data 13) Updated the help file 14) New setup program with a more reliable shared component handling Interscope BlackBox 2.1 SR2 (build 2.1.0.163) 14th September, 1999 1) Fixed problem with setup crashing on non-english Windows NT platforms 2) Files are now processed (encrypted/decrypted) faster because the encryption engine can now encrypt/decrypt more than 8 bytes in one call Interscope BlackBox 2.1 SR1 (build 2.1.0.160) 22nd July, 1999 1) Fixed problem with Microsoft Word crashing after opening an encrypted .doc file by double clicking it directly in Windows Explorer 2) Fixed problem with creation of self-extracting archives, when files were garbled if BlackBox was configured to leave files added in a self-exctracting archive encryptd in their original location Interscope BlackBox 2.1 2nd June, 1999 1) Optimized both the size and the speed of the modules 2) Added support for Windows 2000 2) Fixed several bugs in the setup program, mostly concerning installations on Windows NT and Windows 2000 3) Checked and fixed a few minor bugs related to Y2K 4) Updated the help file 5) Added banners in the password dialogs Interscope BlackBox 2.0 1st January, 1999 1) Incorporated feature to encrypt whole directory structures into single-file self-extracting executables, useful for Internet distribution 2) Added exclusion rules and now specified files and/or folders can be excluded so that they never get encrypted 3) The encryption algorithm is now implemented as a free-threaded COM component, so that it is faster and multiple encryption jobs can now run concurrently 4) The files are now encrypted with DES in CBC mode, which is more secure because all encrypted blocks depend on the previous ones. The files that are encrypted with previous versions of BlackBox in standard (ECB) mode can still be decrypted 5) During decryption of multiple files, if some files are to be decrypted for which the initially given password is not good, another password is asked for. Then a list of passwords is kept and before user is bothered for another password every password in the list is tried. 6) Revised the algorithm used to display the Encrypt... and Decrypt... options on the context menu. Now it is possible to decrypt multiple files, even if not all the selected files are DES-encrypted ones, and also to decrypt whole directories recursively 7) Fixed truncation of file size text displayed in the progress dialog 8) The shell extension used to display the context menu and the Encryption property page no longer needs the MFC runtime, hence it loads faster 9) Added images in the Windows Explorer context menus 10) Detailed file sizes (between braces, in bytes) in the Encryption proprety page and in the progress dialog are now displayed with interlaced commas (e.g. 1,024 Bytes for 1KB) 11) Now correctly preserves date/time of encrypted files 12) Added a shredder that can be displayed on the desktop and supports drag&drop from Windows Explorer, and it also can be displayed in the Send To menu 13) Added icon to the system tray that monitors the status of the security set Interscope BlackBox 1.3 11th January, 1998 1) Fixed a problem with different users on Windows NT 2) Fixed a bug causing the Start Menu not being updated during install on Windows NT 3) Updated FAQ Interscope BlackBox 1.2 28th June, 1997 1) Changed name from Interscope DES File Encoder/Decoder to Interscope BlackBox 2) Due to large number of downloads, changing licensing to shareware 3) Added an unistall feature 4) Fixed a problem with passwords, which caused some characters to be interchangable in user passwords (e.g. a file encrypted witch password "abc8" was possible to be decrypted with password "abc9") 5) Added context sensitive help Interscope DES File Encoder/Decoder 1.0a 10th June, 1997 1) Fixed an installation problem on Windows NT 4.0 2) Fixed the display of the user who encrypted a file in the Encoding file property page on Windows NT 4.0 Interscope DES File Encoder/Decoder 1.0 7th June, 1997 1) Initial release (freeware)