Comments on: Protect Data with TrueCrypt

By: Tim Haughton

Tim Haughton — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:40:23 +0000

The System Encryption is ideal for laptops and any system with sensitive data. Another great piece of functionality is the traveller disk. No web worker leaves home without his trusty USB thumb drive, with Truecrypt, you can not only create an encrypted volume on the USB drive, but also an autorun.inf file and the binaries needed to mount the drive, so the system you’re using it on doesn’t need to have Truecrypt installed.

By: rossgoodman

rossgoodman — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:49:59 +0000

I must admit this is the one piece of software that I can’t do without.
On my work laptop, all customer files go in one container, personal files in another.

The only downside is continually having to back up multi-GB files (the container) when you change one text file.

By: Zia

Zia — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:59:35 +0000

Only restriction with Truecrypt is that you need administrator rights to encrypt/decrypt files…A luxury that not all web workers have when they visit client sites!

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:57:08 +0000

You can also create scripts to mount/unmount your volumes. Just hide the scripts in good places. HOWTO: Securely Open TrueCrypt Volumes in One Click

By: Uli

Uli — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:19:41 +0000

Also don’t use suspend on your laptop. If someone steals your laptop bag they can read your data with the technique described above.

By: Brian Carnell

Brian Carnell — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:18:06 +0000

“I’m a big fan of TrueCrypt, but keep in mind the very recent findings on cold boot attacks on encryption keys:

http://citp.princeton.edu/memory/

Encryption is a great idea, but go the extra mile and completely shut down your computer and wait a few minutes before leaving it alone.”

I don’t think is that much of a concern *unless* you are worrying about police/TSA/Customs looking at your laptop data. Clearly those folks are likely to get some sort of forensic tool in the near future utilizing the SDRAM vulnerability.

Personally, my big concern is someone stealing my bag and not only having my laptop but also having my data. For that, disk level encryption is ideal. In fact, I frequently use it on disks that I move back and forth between computers that are never shut off, so if the feds break in they’re going to be able to obtain access to the key, but if someone steals the drive in transit, the only thing they’re getting out of it is a free disk.

By: JT

JT — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:07:19 +0000

SecurityNow did an episode on the new version of TrueCrypt, definitely worth checking out. http://twit.tv/sn133

By: Logical Extremes

Logical Extremes — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:02:58 +0000

I’m a big fan of TrueCrypt, but keep in mind the very recent findings on cold boot attacks on encryption keys:

http://citp.princeton.edu/memory/

Encryption is a great idea, but go the extra mile and completely shut down your computer and wait a few minutes before leaving it alone.