Do you encrypt files on your home machine(s)?

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
Moderator
May 13, 2003
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I'm installing APO Encryption for use on my thumb drive, and I was wondering how many people use encryption on their home machines. Normally I don't worry about it, but I'm working on getting a file server and SFTP server up. I will have machines behind two firewalls, but they will be exposed via port 22, etc, so I'm a bit more concerned than I normally am.
 

blackangst1

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
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I do. You may want to take a look at Truecrypt. It will even encrypt your OS partition.
 

cobold23

Junior Member
Mar 5, 2008
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I do use 2 different encryption software, one on my home desktop and one for my laptop which I have from the company I`m working for. For the laptop I`m using DriveCrypt Plus Pack last version cos they bought 3 years ago a license and I had no major problems using it and for my home PC I`m using at the moment DriveCrypt cos I don`t want my personal data`s to be read or accessed from my kinds. I have no idea how TrueCrypt is working now, but I know that in the past they had some major problems with the stability, maybe the new released version is better than the old one. What I do appreciate at the software I`m using is the fact that no matter what kind of problem you have you can always contact the customer support team to get a helpful hand from.

Cheers!
 

blackangst1

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
22,902
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I like some of Drivecrypts features, but, for me personally, I trust open source alot more than closed source. Just my preference. DC's thing of military strength 1344 bit encryption is bit misleading IMHO. 256 bit algorithms have not been broken by anyone, and the weakest link for ANY encryption is password strength. The examples of encryption being broken isnt the actual encryption being broken, but via socail engineering.

Anyway both good products though.
 

QuixoticOne

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2005
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I use it increasingly just on general principle, with more and more spyware / malware out there, it's good to have another line of security in case some unauthorized program / person got a hold of the data on my discs / devices etc.

For something like a USB drive it is almost imperative since if you EVER take it to a location where you don't control the computer you plug it into it could easily suck all the data off of it and you'd never really know your data had been compromised, which would suck if you keep anything private on there like your passwords or finances or whatever.

I'd second the suggestion of TrueCrypt (5.1 is just out today, get it!).

Although I can't figure out why you'd want to use SFTP over SSH...

 

DnetMHZ

Diamond Member
Apr 10, 2001
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Honestly there really isn't anything worth protecting on my computer.. about the only files I store on it are music files.
 

Rainsford

Lifer
Apr 25, 2001
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Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
I use it increasingly just on general principle, with more and more spyware / malware out there, it's good to have another line of security in case some unauthorized program / person got a hold of the data on my discs / devices etc.

For something like a USB drive it is almost imperative since if you EVER take it to a location where you don't control the computer you plug it into it could easily suck all the data off of it and you'd never really know your data had been compromised, which would suck if you keep anything private on there like your passwords or finances or whatever.

I'd second the suggestion of TrueCrypt (5.1 is just out today, get it!).

Although I can't figure out why you'd want to use SFTP over SSH...

I'll third the suggestion of TrueCrypt. 5.1 also increases the speed of the AES algorithm (probably the best choice of algorithms in any case) to the point where it's much faster than virtually any physical storage device you'll use it on...so there is little reason NOT to encrypt your data with it. Also, it's open source, which is nearly a requirement of cryptography software, IMHO (how else can you tell it's doing what it claims to do?).

By the way, SFTP is SSH, it's "SSH File Transfer Protocol" ;)