encryption softs

[Anthony]

Hello everyone,

I am interested in two programs from SecurStar. I've talked to the customer support and they were helpful but I just need more info and I thought maybe I could find it here too.

The first one is SurfSolo, it's like a VPN but for personal use, I'd appreciate any suggestions.

I have very sensitive data on my computer and I really consider a full HDD encryption. A friend of mine recommended DriveCrypt PlusPack , this is the second soft that I'm interested in. I know that full disk encryption should be considered only if very necessary but this is my case.

Thanks!

[Jim]

Tell you what, I've been more than pleased with Truecrypt. And you can use it either to encrypt volumes, partitions, USB drives, flash drives and boot partitions.

I used it to encrypt a partition on my USB external drive and if someone tries to access it windows just thinks it isn't formatted. But if you mount it using truecrypt it works great.

Generally though I just create a large Truecrypt volume (size is unlimited) which appears as a file on the system and can be copied as such from drive to drive or CD or DVD. It can have any name or extension so there's no way to tell that the file is encrypted. When you mount a Truecrypt volume it then appears as a secondary hard drive and you read or write to it however you see fit. Once you load sensitive data it is encrypted automatically on the fly. It is never cached or saved unencrypted anywhere. If you shut down, drives are automatically dismounted and no one can get back into it without a password. You can also create hidden volumes inside an encrypted volume.

I should sell this stuff lol. Too bad I couldn't make any money, it's free as well!!
Check it out. All free and open source. It's really great stuff.

[Anthony]

Jim,

thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. I've been checking out DriveCrypt PlusPack and honestly it has the same features as TrueCrypt but I've heard from different sources that it's more reliable in the long run.

I don't know, I guess I will check them both out. TrueCrypt is for free anyway and DCPP has a 30 days free trial. As for SurfSolo, I've already used it by now and I'm pleased with it

Again, thanks and cheers!

[Jim]

Keep us posted about your tests. I had tried several trial type and other free packages but none have been any better than I have found Truecrypt to be. Granted I have not ever used it for whole drive or boot encryption, only partitions and volume creation.

Most people only need a place to put private data instead of the full drive and Truecrypt has been a simple and easy to use device for that purpose and I have never had a problem with it. Even when Windows crashed the volume remounted fine.

For those who want to be able to back up sensitive data securely what I have found is that I can create a volume that will fit either to a CD or DVD or email then just copy the file however many times I want to back it up. And to start a new one you only have to rename a volume and delete the files in it and if needed change the password. Windows only sees it and treats it as a file when unmounted. And Truecrypt doesn't care how big the file is. You can make it from 1K to larger than any current hard drive capacity.

Good luck with your search. I would be genuinely interested in the pros and cons of whatever you decide on.

[Jim]

A little update on Truecrypt. The new version 6 also allows you to encrypt the operating system and also to create a "hidden" operating system which is undetectable. It all depends on which password you log on with.

You could encrypt your drive and allow maybe the family to use it for games etc. But if you also use it for restricted information such as high-security or data protected by the privacy act (like employee personal records) then you could do your work related things with the hidden log on. And if someone forced a password out of you just give them the non-sensitive log on. And when you aren't working on sensitive data you would also use the normal log on.

I like this program. I think it's been great.