Before traveling I mentioned that data security was an important issue. I must admit that I had become quite blasé about it – commuting between offices in the Brisbane area is a relatively safe affair. So, the imminent trip combined with advice received from Intec soon got me extracting that proverbial finger.
There are many options out there, my requirement was that I have business data on an NTFS filesystem under Windows Vista. And yes, not a high end version of Vista with extra security features which would probably do the job, but Home Premium. So, I decided to avail myself of another fantastic free tool.
TrueCrypt can be set up in a number of ways. I was in a hurry and did not want to risk trashing a disk 24 hours before flying (it’s powerful enough in the hands of a fool), so I chose to create a large blob of disk space for the purpose of having a fully encrypted business data area. One can then mount that volume with the GUI tool provided.
The documentation was sufficient to allow a one time browse and then do the job. If you stick to the method I chose, it will be safe to experiment until satisfied with the result. But remember to use a memorable password, as once forgotten, that data is as good as gone – it works and that is its job!
I don’t want to mislead you into thinking that you can create a professional job. Actually you can no doubt get this set up correctly, I think that it is easy and fear of an advanced tool may be the only inhibitor for many. An example of what I mean goes like this – you simply take data already on disk and drop it into your newly created virtual disk, deleting the originals. Maybe you even have an idea that an erase utility will clean away the originals. You dismount the volume and with a good password it is locked away forever. BIG PROBLEM: on disk you probably have all sorts of “deleted” and “cache” files that still house your vital data. And yes, most can be restored with one of any number of readily available tools. You wouldn’t have re-used a secret password that you had previously stored in a file – in case you forgot it – would you!?
In a nutshell, this will keep your data from most prying eyes and may be sufficient, but do not brazenly do this if money or your job rely on it :-)
