8/10 I'm looking for an encryption software package for windows 2000 that
works on a per-directory or drive basis and is transparent. Meaning
once I authenticate myself I can create files or copy stuff into the
folder and it'll be encrypted automatically. Word, Excel, TurboTax,
etc should all work with this encrypted folder. For individual files
I can use pgp. But when working with a lot of files, I prefer not to
think and just dump the files into a directory. I'll buy the software.
Not looking for free stuff. Thanks.
\_ Whatever you do, avoid EFS. It has its uses, but its key management
is immature and difficult to manage. You may also want to have a
look at Utimaco Safeguard Easy (it's not on a per-directory basis,
but might give you something to work with.) -John
\_ for enterprise level you might consider a NAS or SAN product like
the datafort from Decru. the nas product does per file encryption
on the fly.. plus can do end-end cryption btwn it and your desktop.
for just local storage, i recommend either f-secure or pgpdisk,
both create a virtual volume on the local drive and maintain a
file system structure w/in that volume. from experience w/ both,
pgpdisk at least used to be easier to use. you can find it at
http://www.pgp.com of course. -shac
\_ You can also try BestCrypt. You can mount an encrypted file as a
removable drive. I've been using it for more than three years
now to keep my personal stuff secure on my work laptop.
http://www.jetico.com
\_ Steganos Security Suite. Tools include Steganos Safe (like PGPDisk),
Internet Trace Destructor, Email Encryption, Shredder, Password
Manager
\_ Which tools work on both Linux and Windows platforms?
\_ here is my stupid question. Where do you guys store your
private key ring when you are using any of these product?
the very same laptop/computer that you are encrypting upon?
\_ This is the problem. Probably the best place to store
a private encryption key is on something like a smart card,
which can itself be PIN-code protected. One of the main
weaknesses of most drive encryption products (this is my
beef with EFS) is that it's nearly impossible to keep
track of peoples' private encryption keys--Entrust does a
good job of this, I'm not sure of other PKIs (MS does not.)
Ideally you'd have the keys somewhere local and secure
(like a hardware token inside a protected container) as
well as archived *very* securely for recovery purposes in
something like an encrypted CA/RA database. For everyday
encryption (aunt Hilda's secret recipes, your porn) storing
keys in something like a GPG keyring should be enough. -John
\_ My PGP foo is weak. Please explain. So what if I store
all the key stuff in the same laptop? I thought that
without my passphrase people can't possibly crack it?
That's the whole point of the bigger and bigger sizes
I keep hearing about. E.g. 1024 vs 2048 bit encryption.
\_ OK when you lose your encryption keys, you have a
problem. A PKI (public key infrastructure) is a
mechanism that issues keys for encryption and
your transfer rates will sky rocke while your disk usage will
signing etc. and, ideally, archives your private
encryption key in a safe place. PGP/GPG work
differently, instead of having authoritative say
"Joe is OK", you have this idea of a "web of trust"
where you trust peoples' keys by consensus. Key
size, to oversimplify it, just affects how hard it
is to crack something by brute force. And as for
storing all your keys in one place, look at it like
a normal keychain--if you put all your keys on it
and it gets lost or stolen, you have a problem--you
should probably use a key safe or something. Hence
the password protection or storing it on some
secure medium, like a smart card. For some slightly
outdated docs on how a PKI (not PGP) works, have
a look at http://ospkibook.sourceforge.net -John
\_ I use PhilCrypt with the compression option. Works with all OS's,
local, over NFS, HTTP, etc to NAS, SAN, with udp, tcp, iscsi, you
name it! PhilCrypt is the best and the compression option means
your transfer rates will sky rocket while your disk usage will
actually go down the more data you add to your PhilCrypt DataVault!
Get "PhilCrypt DataVault Deluxe" (includes PhilCompression and
advanced management features)! |
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