Worried about your laptop getting into the wrong hands? More then the cost of the laptop, it’s the cost of all that personal data getting to the wrong place.
Well, the best solution is to encrypt your personal files, so that no one can access them without a password.
Truecrypt – Free On-the-fly Encryption program
Encrypting your data could be a painful process. Usually you have to encrypt the entire filesystem, and that can sometimes be a complicated process, and even slow down your computer.
TrueCrypt provides an easy, transparent and free encryption mechanism for Linux, Mac and Windows users to securely encrypt their data, and even entire operating systems.
Here are TrueCrypt’s main features, as listed on the website:
- Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
- Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
- Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
- Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
- Parallelization and pipelining allow data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted.
- Provides plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.
- Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS.
In fact, it is so powerful it might take someone from the NSA to get your data, what with hidden volumes and virtual encrypted discs!
As a quick look, this is what an hidden encrypted volume is:
[Image from TrueCrypt documentation]
Setting up a volume doesn’t need any expertise, either. It’s all just a few clicks away with a helpful wizard:
Before the process of formatting the volume, you’ll be asked to move the mouse around to generate enough random data to securely encrypt your volume.
On The Fly Encryption
On-the-fly encryption means that you don’t have to worry about manually encrypting files. Just copy a file onto the encrypted volume like you would a normal file, and it’s automaticall encrypted and stored for you.
TrueCrypt is a free and open-source software and works on Linux, Mac and Windows. You can download it here.
Are you a NSA guy who’s cracked an encrypted volume? Or have a story where you outwitted the villains using TrueCrypt? Tell us in the comments!
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Hi, My name is Narayanan and i'm your resident blogger. Technology and internet have always fascinated me and that's the reason behind the origin of this blog. Thanks for visiting Tech Spikes :)