Hello All

As we have an increasing number of issues regarding the compression and encryption of data electronically transferred I am posting a small FAQ here in order to assist those who may be having problems.

 

 

Zipping files is obviously to reduce file size and make the file easier to transfer electronically. Encrypting the contains of a zip file scrambles the contents requiring a password to open and extract the file. Once a file is encrypted its contents are secured until such time that it is decrypted.

 

 

 

As much of the data Woods transfer contains sensitive information (name, address, financial information) it is company policy to transmit data only in a secure fashion. This is to protect both us and our clients.

 

Further reading

 

 

 

 

Our files are zipped using WinZip 11 with AES 256 encryption method.

 

 

 

 

Windows only contains basic zip handling functions, therefore cannot open encrypted zip files

 

 

WinZip only supports AES 256 encryption from version 9 onwards if you have an older version of WinZip you may well receive a "not a valid zip file"  error message.

 

 

Unfortunately we cannot support all of the many different types of zip programs available.

 

 

 

 

 

WinZip is free to try for an evaluation period and the latest version is available from

 

 

With WinZip you will be able to both create and read encrypted zip files

 

 

Zip reader is a freeware program that will read and extract zip files, however you will not be able to create your own zip files from the program.

 

 

or 

 

 

 

 

We can provide an FTP account with secure login details if you are able to receive files via FTP although the previous two solutions are preferred and easier to support. It may well be worth talking to your IT department about installing some Zip reading software on your PC where at all possible.