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Can Your Computer Keep a Secret?

Very few things in life cause more work-related stress than a missing notebook computer, removable drive or other storage device. Those that have misplaced those items are wondering, “Who is looking at my data or accessing my files?” After all, a stolen storage device is how identity theft or corporate espionage can start. Aside from […]

Written By

Frank Ohlhorst

Feb 29, 2008

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Very few things in life cause more work-related stress than a missing notebook computer, removable drive or other storage device. Those that have misplaced those items are wondering, “Who is looking at my data or accessing my files?” After all, a stolen storage device is how identity theft or corporate espionage can start.

Aside from keeping your devices locked away in a vault, there is another option to protect that data: encryption. Sure, encryption technology has been around for some time, and even today’s OSes (think Windows Vista BitLocker) incorporate the technology, but how many people do you know that actually use any of the current encryption technologies to properly protect transportable storage devices?

For most, the answer is “not many.” Well why, is that? It’s a combination of complexity and ignorance that halts encryption.

TrueCrypt V4.3a from TrueCrypt Software may very well be the answer to those thorny questions. Designed to establish and maintain an on-the-fly-encrypted drive (basically, automatic encryption), TrueCrypt prevents any data from an encrypted volume from being retrieved without using the correct password or correct encryption key. Until decrypted, a TrueCrypt volume appears to be nothing more than a series of random numbers. The entire file system is encrypted (that is, file names, folder names, contents of every file and free space).

What helps to make the product unique when compared with others is that unlike other folder-locking applications, TrueCrypt cannot be circumvented by booting in safe mode or booting from a CD (or even worse, by terminating the process in Task Manager), the only way to access the data is to mount it using TrueCrypt.

If you’re looking to secure your volumes quickly and safely, give TrueCrypt a try! More info can be found over at http://winbyte.de/.

Can Your Computer Keep a Secret?

Frank Ohlhorst

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