the present invention fig2 illustrates the preferred general record layout of a zip file in accordance with the present invention the newly modified zip file format specification according to the present invention as published by pkware inc is described in a document entitled appnote txt which is attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference the new version of the zip file format provides an implementation of the use of strong encryption based on a key generated using a password this implementation constitutes one example of a structure and layout of the records and fields suitable for processing secure zip files as defined by the present invention the complete description of the conventional or standard zip file format will not be included here since this information is generally well known only the portions pertaining to the new records and fields defined by the new format capable of storing data using strong encryption will be discussed in detail the present invention extends the original zip file format with the addition of new storage records to support the use of strong encryption methods including as described above both public private key or asymmetric methods and password based or symmetric methods and the capability to use a mixture of symmetric and asymmetric methods an example of implementing a new strong encryption method is discussed below this example identifies several new records and fields that must be defined within the zip.