Author Topic: How many of you use encryption? (Read 80,467 times)

MrCrispy · « **on:** December 21, 2007, 04:01 AM »

There is, effectively, no privacy these days. The govt basically has carte blanche to snoop into our private information, and the courts have ruled that even computer techs have the right to look at your hard drive and report you.

I know that the majority of pc users have no idea what encryption and security is, and they are not expected to. But I wonder how many knowledgeable computer users, like those who post on forums, have their data encrypted. I personally store all my data in a TrueCrypt container which is then backed up locally and also online. I'm also setting up the same system for all my friends and family, and its very easy for them to get used to it.

Especially on a laptop, it is critical to secure your data. If Windows EFS and Bitlocker were not so inherently dangerous, I would use them instead.

Nighted · « **Reply #1 on:** December 21, 2007, 04:21 AM »

I do. I prefer encrypted containers myself.

BTW, I scrapped TrueCrypt after finding BestCrypt Traveller

Ralf Maximus · « **Reply #2 on:** December 21, 2007, 04:23 AM »

I like the idea of encryption, but so far no implementation appeals.

I experimented with PGP a few years ago and found the whole mindset & workflow cumbersome. I use TwoFish encryption in some of the software I write for security related objects, and offer it as a feature for "regular" data. None of my customers avail themselves of this feature -- not sure why.

For normal correspondence I find most people don't understand what I say anyway, so it seems a waste of time.

Nighted · « **Reply #3 on:** December 21, 2007, 04:25 AM »

Ralf...what?

MrCrispy · « **Reply #4 on:** December 21, 2007, 04:40 AM »

Nighted, what are the advantages of BestCrypt over TC that made you choose it? I've read about if before and a quick glance didn't show me anything that TC lacks except the volume encryption which is coming in v5 of TC according to their website. TC also has a traveler mode.

Nighted · « **Reply #5 on:** December 21, 2007, 04:42 AM »

I like it because it doesn't have all the setup involved. You just take it and any container with you and you're good to go.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 21, 2007, 05:02 AM »

Will BestCrypt Traveler allow you to access encrypted containers on a machine where you do not have admin privileges?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #7 on:** December 21, 2007, 05:36 AM »

I use encryption for data that I send out if I consider it to be in any way sensitive.
I have some clients who damned well ought to do the same but who are quite prepared
to send their stuff around with no thought for security at all.

For my own stuff, on my own machines, some is encrypted and some not.
I really haven't adopted any system. To be honest, I'm a bit leery of drive encryption --
pure ignorance on my part. I'll be watching this thread with interest.

Should this response have been encrypted?

Ralf Maximus · « **Reply #8 on:** December 21, 2007, 05:53 AM »

How good is the native NTFS encryption? You know, the right-click-on-a-folder variety?

pip2kk · « **Reply #9 on:** December 21, 2007, 05:59 AM »

i use http://sourceforge.net/projects/loop-aes/

MrCrispy · « **Reply #10 on:** December 21, 2007, 07:04 AM »

Quote

How good is the native NTFS encryption? You know, the right-click-on-a-folder variety?

It is very good. It is however dangerous because its tied to your user account. If you ever have a problem where you need to reinstall the OS, the data is lost. The way to prevent is to back up the key from the Certificate store in Windows or designate a recovery account, or use Active directory. Bitlocker further complicates matters. You can see what I'm getting at. The data is no longer portable outside the OS.

Quote

To be honest, I'm a bit leery of drive encryption

I was too for a long time. Then I said to hell with it, encrypted my entire 500gb partition, synced it with another encrypted partition on external drive for backup, and now barely notice it after the initial key entry. There is no speed loss and my data is safe from prying eyes.

Quote

I like it because it doesn't have all the setup involved. You just take it and any container with you and you're good to go.

I do exactly this with TrueCrypt. The external drive has an autorun entry (created by a TC wizard) that will run and mount the container. No need to install anything. I'm not questioning your choice of BestCrypt btw, I just don't want to pay for it without a good reason.

Nighted · « **Reply #11 on:** December 21, 2007, 07:37 AM »

BestCrypt Traveler is free.

wr975 · « **Reply #12 on:** December 21, 2007, 07:50 AM »

Quote from: mwb1100 on December 21, 2007, 05:02 AM

Will BestCrypt Traveler allow you to access encrypted containers on a machine where you do not have admin privileges?

Quoting the help file:
"Please note that the user should have administrating privileges to run BestCrypt Traveller software."

"BestCrypt Traveller" seems like a very limited version of commercial "Bestcrypt". I'll stick with TrueCrypt.... 100% free, no crippleware.

gjehle · « **Reply #13 on:** December 21, 2007, 08:55 AM »

i use
Cryptoloop for encrypting everything from partitions to whole drives on the fly.
GNU Privacy Guard (basically PGP just free and open) for mail.
Mircryption for IRC chatting.
OTR for Pidgin to encrypt all my IMs for jabber, y!, icq, aim, msn, ... (official OTR website)

same answer, less words:
yes, i do use encryption

on, all of it is free as in beer and freedom.
and most of it cross platform

f0dder · « **Reply #14 on:** December 21, 2007, 09:06 AM »

Who uses encryption?

I___Do

I wouldn't use the native NTFS encryption nor bitlocker. If somebody has offline access to your harddrive and can bruteforce your login password, you're game over with NTFS encryption - and for bitlocker, I don't know the thing well enough to say anything about it, but I'd much rather use TrueCrypt since you know what you get.

I use Loop-AES for my old fileserver (the one at my mum's place), but have moved to kernel-crypto (cryptsetup + LUKS) for the fileserver here at my place. There's a speed hit, the Celeron-420 (core2 model, not Pentium-D model, 1.60GHz) doesn't seem to be able to do the full 65MB/s that the drives can pull, but I'm not sure how to efficiently time the speed - hdparm -tT doesn't provide realiable stats for /dev/mapper/* .

And why the hell doesn't linux seem to do read-striping for RAID-MIRROR volumes?

jgpaiva · « **Reply #15 on:** December 21, 2007, 02:56 PM »

I only use encryption in 2 forms:
Keepass for my keys, fSekrit for my most important keys (on an ftp so that i can access it form anywhere) and fSekrit for important documents (like school work) which i need to send someone.

CWuestefeld · « **Reply #16 on:** December 21, 2007, 03:42 PM »

There is very little stored data that I bother to encrypt; most of it is "safe enough" sitting in my computer in a locked house, needing a password to log in. Anything that's really private goes into TrueCrypt, which seems to me to be better thought-out than others (e.g., it's plausible deniability features).

For just a couple of files on my PocketPC, I use CryptoStorage (http://www.sinantech.com/products.htm), which is the same kind of volume container thing. The software is great, their customer support is non-existent, as far as I can see.

I would use encryption on my email just on general principles, but the network effect hobbles this -- very few people actually have the software to do this, or even to understand what's going on.

Don't forget that the other side of encryption's coin is digital signatures. I have used this many times in communicating with clients. I don't care if they can't verify the signature themselves; the fact that it's there at all would allow me to prove the accuracy of my story in court (should the need ever arise; it never has).

Lashiec · « **Reply #17 on:** December 21, 2007, 04:08 PM »

Only KeePass and OTR, I don't have anything here that I would bother to encrypt (nor anyone would bother to take any interest). Well, except the Miranda database containing all my conversations, but mostly because that's of no interest to anyone (no blueprints of atomic bombs or plans to assault the United Nations building xD). I might use encryption for storing backup files in a remote server, but not on the local machine.

nosh · « **Reply #18 on:** December 22, 2007, 12:22 PM »

Several encryption apps running here. Cryptext being the most used coz it's so damn fast - perfect for "casual" use.
I've found CD Lock the most transparent method for encrypting removable media.

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** December 22, 2007, 10:30 PM »

i occasionally use pgp or gnupg for sending encrypted email.

Lusher · « **Reply #20 on:** December 23, 2007, 12:16 PM »

i use truecrypt too.

I read the next version released next year will have system partition/boot drive encryption. Very very interesting ,though i doubt i will use that.

Nod5 · « **Reply #21 on:** December 24, 2007, 09:28 AM »

I have also tested Truecrypt for some time. Great application!

During the last couple of weeks I have tried whole disk encryption (WDE) on my Ubuntu laptop. I carry it around all the time and have work related documents on it so WDE seemed like the best thing to aim for. On the truecrypt forum (temporarily down at the moment it seems) there was a thread on a built in WDE option in Ubuntu (on the alternative install CD). Or almost WDE since there is a small unencrypted boot-partition. From reading that truecrypt thread I got the impression that it is still very secure given a proper password. So far my testinstallation has worked flawlessly. I enter the password at startup - that's all. Here is a step by step guide that was linked to from that truecrypt forum thread: http://users.piuha.net/martti/comp/ubuntu/en/cryptolvm.html

f0dder · « **Reply #22 on:** December 24, 2007, 09:53 AM »

If you do full-disk encryption on linux, make sure to use encrypted swap too... having /boot unencrypted (as it needs to) isn't a security issue. I've used root-encrypted linux with slackware and loop-AES for several years, works like a charm.

KenR · « **Reply #23 on:** December 24, 2007, 05:43 PM »

I depend on it (and have for years) to keep all my patient information unavailable to anyone who gets access to my computer. I used PGP previously. Currently I use truecrypt.

Ken

Armando · « **Reply #24 on:** December 24, 2007, 07:16 PM »

[slightly off topic] Ubuntu might take its encryption options and features a couple steps further :

Quote

The Gutsy Gibbon Alternate installer introduced the possiblity to configure encrypted devices (with cryptsetup/LUKS and dm-crypt) and offers a standard partman recipe ("Use entire disk with encryption"). For Hardy we want to review how we can improve this, in particular:

* Provide support for it in ubiquity
* Offer encryption support for autoresizing and "automatically partition free space" modes, too.
* Consider support for key files (on USB sticks, etc) instead of/in addition to passphrases.

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/encrypted-filesystems
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EncryptedFilesystems [/slightly off topic]