Encrypting again…
Like I use to say, when you do something do it good. And when you find something to improve, do it.
For mail I can use GnuPG to sign and/or encrypt my mail. And this is working very well. Marion and I use it all the time. We talk often per mail about things that are not meant for everyone eyes. After all, mail has concerning privacy only the value of a postcard.
It is amazing to see what kind of confident information people sent through mail without even over thinking it.
Anyway, yesterday I suddenly realized that I also store confident information on my laptop outside my mail. Things as documents and pictures. Some work related files. These files were fully accessible by anyone who could put their hand on my laptop. Which could happen if in the worse case my laptop gets stolen, but even when my laptop stands on my desk and I am away from my desk.
So I looked for a program for file encryption. I found one that serves my purpose completely. This program is called TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt is Open Source and that way I can be assured that there are no backdoors (because the source is available to anyone).
With TrueCrypt you can create volumes, when not mounted these volumes are encrypted and so not accesible by anyone. And so their contents are safe for stranger eyes. And this is how it should be…
Pictures and documents…. Yes, a very good idea to encrypt *those* :).
i am using truecrypt for a long time. And i am very happy with it. I have used a lot of encryption tools. Some which were very expensive. And did not work..
I have never lost any documents with truecrypt. And when someone scans the drive. He/she sees complete noise and no pattern.
The nice thing about Truecrypt is the function to use hidden containers. if you do not know that these excist, you will not be able to find it.
Very nice product.
Yes Marion, those were indeed my first thought of needed to be encrypted. But as so often, there are more good uses for it.
@Patrick: As far as I can see it now, I really like TrueCrypt.
I did read about the hidden volumes and it looks as a very handy feature. I don’t know if I need those for my current use, but we will see about that. I will experiment a little with them though.