• 0

Encryption Software Needed


Question

Hi Guys,

I have a Windows 7 64Bit laptop and decided that i need to start encrypting my sensitive data, if i ever lost this laptop and some of the information got into the wrong hands, it just doesn't bare thinking about :unsure:

Ive got a password on the laptop, but thats easily bypassed. Ive got Pray installed too, but if someone can crack the windows password, they can remove pray aswell.

All of the encryption software ive come across say i need to re-format my hard drive with their software in order for it to work. Even though this is something that needs to be done... I haven't got the time to format this laptop and reinstall everything / restore all my data etc.

Can anyone help me find an alternative encryption program? even if it encrypts a mapped drive that i could call "Secure" or something like that.

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0

One of these days I need to experiment with the 'Hidden OS' capability of TrueCrypt. You supposedly can encrypt the whole hard drive of a laptop, and not just encrypt it, but create 'plausible deniability' in that you can create two encrypted volumes. So say, one simplier password, and it boots into a totally clean Windows XP install, and enter the longer more secure password and it boots into your Windows 7 daily use install. That way someone could 'force' you to give the password it's asking for, and you give them the XP one, and they have no way of knowing, even once you boot into XP, that there is any other install at all.

Now, I use the 'hidden volume' thing all the time with TrueCrypt, but have never done it as a way to have the full hidden OS. And BudMan is right, it's pretty much so secure you could indeed store nuke launch codes in.

Maybe I'll swap out the HD in my laptop this weekend with a spare and see if I can't give this a go... always been curious, but never paranoid enough to try it. My laptop these days is just for browsing. Any work stuff is accessed through a remote VDI.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

When you say bitlocker is not compatible with your laptop, you mean the version of windows you have on your laptop does have the bitlocker feature. Bitlocker can be used on any machine, yes it is better if you have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), but its not required for use.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/6229/how-to-use-bitlocker-on-drives-without-tpm/

How To Use BitLocker on Drives without TPM

So I have no idea how your laptop could not be compatible?? Other than you don't have the version of windows that supports it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

As Budman has pointed out you can do Full Disk encryption with bitlocker even without the TPM module installed, ive done it myself. Basically the TPM Module gets replaced with a usb memory stick with the key hidden on it, so you need to plug the usb stick in every time you want to boot the laptop. Off the top of my head i think Enterprise and Ultimate support full disk encryption, i think Win7 Pro only supports encrypting non-system drives like external USB's and memory sticks.

If you can't then i would agree with the others and say go for TruCrypt, if you don't want to mess with the Win7 installation then you could always dynamically resize your OS partition down, create another partition, encrypt it using trucrypt and then relocate your mydocs / data to this encrypted drive. In the event of the laptop falling into the wrong hands your data will be safe.

On a side note i wish the costs of full disk encryption were cheap enough to embed at the hardware level, as i believe laptops need this kind of security as standard as a lot of of personal information can be stolen/lost in an instant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

When you say bitlocker is not compatible with your laptop, you mean the version of windows you have on your laptop does have the bitlocker feature. Bitlocker can be used on any machine, yes it is better if you have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), but its not required for use.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/6229/how-to-use-bitlocker-on-drives-without-tpm/

How To Use BitLocker on Drives without TPM

So I have no idea how your laptop could not be compatible?? Other than you don't have the version of windows that supports it.

I will look into that :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

look into what doing it without TPM? Or what version of windows you have?? To see if supported? Do you have ultimate or enterprise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

You can use Windows' built-in Encrypting File System if you wish to encrypt only certain sensitive data files instead of the whole volume. Even if someone manages to reset the Windows password, they cannot decrypt EFS encrypted files.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Bitlocker is more native but i don't trust in Microsoft.

However, exist some stories where some (supposedly) criminal encrypted a disk using truecrypt and not even the FBI and CIA were able to decrypt it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Another +1 for TruCrypt, free, opensource, works on every major OS (Windows, Mac, Linux), and allows to encrypted an entire drive to just a folder.

Bitlocker is more native but i don't trust in Microsoft.

However, exist some stories where some (supposedly) criminal encrypted a disk using truecrypt and not even the FBI and CIA were able to decrypt it.

It was a news story where a south american government sent a hard drive to the fbi to decrypt, it was a banker they arrested.

After I think about a year, they gave up and gave it back at them. The banker had non-stanard encryption algrythm and a very strong password.

On the flip side, there a security company claiming to be able to retrive TruCrypt password while it's in memory, but only under these conditions.

* Physical Access to device

* It currently having volume / drive unlocked (as in access encryption drive / folder)

* Be able to plug in a device with a firewire port

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Truecrypt hands down.

it's quite reliable to. i been using it since 2005.

i would use AES encryption since it's the fastest. (i.e. least load on CPU)

p.s. i never used the entire system encryption but i am sure it's fine. i just use file containers myself.

However, exist some stories where some (supposedly) criminal encrypted a disk using truecrypt and not even the FBI and CIA were able to decrypt it.

i also read that story a while back. i would say roughly a year ago now.

in fact, it was mid-2010... here is the article i found from a quick google search... http://goo.gl/3V8E

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.