Many of my geek friends use an array of Linux flavors (Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Knoppix, Mandrake, OpenBSD, RedHat, Slackware, etc.) and have their hard drives encrypted for added protection and security.
I also have some friends who don’t use Linux and prefer Windows, shame on you, hehe… but that’s ok because at some point we all have to use Microsoft Windows in our personal or business daily lifes.
It seems lately I’ve been asked a lot if I can recommend an easy solution to encrypt hard drives under Windows. Well today I have a great recommendation: Truecrypt.
TrueCrypt is Open-Source, free and runs under Windows XP/2000/2003 and Linux. What more could you ask for?
Some of the key features in TrueCrypt include:
- Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
- Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a device, such as USB flash drive.
- Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
Something a lot of people will find interesting about this program is it provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
- Hidden volume (steganography)
- No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).
TrueCrypt uses multiple encryption algorithms: AES-256, Blowfish (448-bit key), CAST5, Serpent, Triple DES, and Twofish. Mode of operation: LRW (CBC supported as legacy).
To find out more, visit www.Truecrypt.org today!
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I had a look at this last year and it seemed to work pretty good on my XP machine- have you used it for anything?
There’s actually another free disk encryption system: FreeOTFE
It looks a *lot* better than TrueCrypt and supports PDAs as well.
Looks interesting. The source code is also freely available.
I’ll have to look into this program a little more.
Thanks for the suggestion.
I have used TrueCrypt on XP for about 2 years …. very stable .. no crash ever on XP. Now I was forced to switch on Slackware 11. Unfortunately I didn’t find any step by step installation guide stating from a clean Slackware installation to a functional Slackware + TrueCrypt machine … It requires some changes in the kernel modules and this kind of changes are not easily understood by peoples that are new on Linux. Maybe someone here will have time and knowledge to write down a little document starting from the clean Linux installation.
very very goog thnk you
I haven’t used TrueCrypt, but just followed instructions for FreeOTFE on how to share between linux and windows and it “just works”. I’ve been very satisfied with FreeOTFE after continuous use on XP/Vista for 6mo…
TrueCrypt is much faster than FreeOTFE. I had tested both by copying a 100MB file on my PC. TrueCrypt could complete it in 35 seconds which FreeOTFE took more than 5 minutes!