Encryption software

soupdragon10

I need to install encryption software on my laptop, and am running Windows 7 home professional. I've looked at Bitlocker, but would need to upgrade Windows 7 to get this, and having shelled out for the computer wondered if there was something

a) cheaper

b) similar cost to bitlocker but better/more effective.

Is Bitlocker any good? Is it stable as I don't want something that's going to muck up my currently efficient laptop.

This is a new area for me, so any advice would be appreciated.

leemoss

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Free and very good.

debitcardmayhem

+1 for truecrypt

paddyrg

+1 again - truecrypt.

TC can encrypt your whole drive, or you can give it a file (eg 10GB) to encrypt, and keep your *cough* importnat spreadsheets *cough* in there, away from prying eyes.

One nice feature is this, it takes a bit of getting your head around, but bear with me. Create a big encrypted file (mapped as a drive), then create a hidden partition within it, but leaving some space. Now you have an outer and inner area, the inner one is mathematically undetectable, so you can leave some decoy/dummy files in the outer one, and keep the real goodies in the inner one. This means whilst someone could tell that you have a TC 'disc'/folder, if they torture the password from you, they get the dummy outer files and have no way of knowing that the real inner files exist beyond those dummy outer files. You can use this for 2 levels of protection - very secure, and veryveryvery secure, for 2 levels of files. TC manages all this for you, you just need to exercise caution when updating the outer area as even TC doesn't know about the inner area unless you unlock it at the time, it is that secure! Don't worry, it is all easy, but it is one awesome product at the price.

free4440273

+1 Truecrypt ...

ChiefGrasscutter

One reason for encrypting the whole drive rather than just using an encrypted trucrypt file 'holder' within the normal password free windows environment is as follows:
'Traces' will be left within windows data of files having been accessed from within the Truecrypt 'holder' by you. These will give indications of the existance of such files - even if the files themselves are mysteriously nowhere to be seen - a further indicator that something is being hidden on the disc.

I suppose it all depends exactly against whom you are wanting to protect the data against, and what level of technology they have at their disposal to crack the protection: ranging for the merely curious up through commercially sensitve data through to the security services.

Oh and ensure you use a very long and very secure password.

leemoss

Even the security/government services have problems cracking true crypt encryption if a good (long/complex) password is used, however they do have the law on their side which means you can go to jail for not giving up the password.

fenlander_uk

Depends on your requirements. If you want to encrypt a whole partition (including the system partition), or create a secure container of any size where you can just save anything you want to keep private, then Truecrypt is excellent. If you just want to protect the occasional personal file without having to replan your whole file system, then you might like to look at Axcrypt.