Hard Drive Encryption (1 Viewer)

[ctriopelle]

I just bought a laptop a couple weeks ago and I have yet to transfer all my "critical" files to it from my desktop PC. One of my goals in buying the laptop was to use it for myself, and hand the desktop over to the kids. If I had no reason to use the machine, I could strip off all the big speed sapping programs and still leave them with something that is good for kid friendly internet access. One thing that has me a bit worried is that I tend to use my PC to do a lot of home finance stuff, and while a home PC isn't 100% bulletproof, it doesn't have the file accessibility risk a portable laptop presents should someone decide to steal if off my back or out of my car.

I have heard about drive encryption software that businesses are required to use if they store confidential information on their PC's, and figured this would be a good way to help me feel better about having some sensitive info in a convenient location on the laptop. I downloaded TrueCrypt from the CNET site after it looked like that was the highest rated freeware for the purpose, but I haven't installed it yet. Does anyone here have experience using encrypted files, and does it add a hassle factor that would make me rather leave the sensitive stuff on a home network drive that never comes out from behind my firewalls? Also, if I do end up using encryption, is it better to just have the truly sensitive stuff locked under encryption, or is it easier to encrypt everything? It looks like the program allows for this, but it would seem that could really slow things down a lot.

 

[Kirby]

I've never used any, but I always check out this site for free software.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/pc/security-tools.html

 

[ctriopelle]

Seriously, nobody in here has anything they can throw me?

 

[GoFishTN]

I have my whole hard drive encrypted with TrueCrypt (yes, I am paranoid). I haven't noticed any problems.

Edit: If you do this, pick a passpharse (not a password) or you're wasting your time.

 

[Garrett]

I have my whole hard drive encrypted with TrueCrypt (yes, I am paranoid). I haven't noticed any problems.

TrueCrypt is a great product...

 

[ctriopelle]

How much of a pain is it to use files that are encrypted? Can you open them from the programs that run them, or do you need to do something special to access them? Do either of you fully encrypt the system, or just do select files/folders?

Edit: Just noticed one of you does the whole thing. Does it slow your system down since everything in encrypets?

 

[GoFishTN]

How much of a pain is it to use files that are encrypted? Can you open them from the programs that run them, or do you need to do something special to access them? Do either of you fully encrypt the system, or just do select files/folders?Edit: Just noticed one of you does the whole thing. Does it slow your system down since everything in encrypets?

TrueCrypt lets you make encrypted volumes (files that store other files), so the volumes have to be mounted (think drive letters) by TrueCrypt before your files can be used. I believe it will let you mount them automatically, but that really defeats the point.You can also encrypt the whole drive, which is what I do. But I'm not doing CAD or rendering or anything intensive. I haven't noticed much, if any, slow down though.

 

[crazy diamond]

install gentoo

 

[Sarnoff]

FYI, TrueCrypt may be dead.

[SIZE=large]WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues[/SIZE]

This page exists only to help migrate existing data encrypted by TrueCrypt.

The development of TrueCrypt was ended in 5/2014 after Microsoft terminated support of Windows XP. Windows 8/7/Vista and later offer integrated support for encrypted disks and virtual disk images. Such integrated support is also available on other platforms (click here for more information). You should migrate any data encrypted by TrueCrypt to encrypted disks or virtual disk images supported on your platform.

[SIZE=x-large]WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure[/SIZE]

You should download TrueCrypt only if you are migrating data encrypted by TrueCrypt.

time?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jameslyne/2014/05/29/open-source-crypto-truecrypt-disappears-with-suspicious-cloud-of-mystery/?utm_campaign=techtwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Jake Williams, SANS Instructor and Principle at Rendition InfoSec phrased this a little better than I, “ I’ve long suspected that a government was behind TrueCrypt . The code base is hugely complicated with lots of dependencies and is anything but easy to build, particularly for the Windows version. It’s a great way to obfuscate what is in the binary packages (which 99.9% of Windows users use) that may or may not be in the source code”.