use password in win rar to protect file is secure or not

Question

I use winrar to protect a file from others reading it. I set a password on the archive and use a 5-digit password. Is this secure or not?

When I want to read it, I extract the archive,read it and then delete the archive normally. It is a text file. How can I make sure that the text file that I unrar can not cannot be made readable again using some program.

Answer 1

I would make three comments:

1) A 5 digit password isn't nearly long enough to prevent brute-forcing of the password for decryption. If you chose a significantly complex pass phrase Winrar's encryption is quite secure. Personally however I would recommend TrueCrypt.

2) Unless you are doing a secure erase the file would be easily recoverable for some time after you delete it.

3) The question was a little bit difficult to follow due to poor grammar.

Answer 2

I think there are evaral application which can crack rar or zip files easyly by brute foce method or using dictionaries. ex:- http://download.cnet.com/RAR-Password-Cracker/3000-2092_4-10127912.html

Answer 3

Password protection of archives is usually not very strong (I know of pwds in zip and rar is probaly not very much different).

Also 'normal delete' is unsave. It can often be reverted with undelete.

Suggest encrypt with pgp and some kind of secure delete.