Re: Encrypting Hard Disks

[Edgar Swank <edgar@Garg.Campbell.CA.US>]

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FCri Kaljundi wrote:

>  Tue, 22 Oct 1996, Michael B Amoruso kirjutas:
>
>> Are there any good programs out there that can encrypt my HD??  Since
>> there probably are, please mention some and where I can get them.  Also,
>> no one mention PGP.
>
>F-Secure Desktop from Data Fellows is pretty good. It uses Blowfish
>algorithm which means it is very fast on 32-bit Windows machines.
>
>More information at http://www.datafellows.com/f-secure/

- From a quick perusal of the above web site, it appears as though
F-Secure Desktop offers encryption by file, much like PGP does, only a
little more automatic.  But an entire encrypted file must be decrypted
before you can process it and the entire file must then be
re-encrypted if it is updated.

- From http://www.datafellows.com/f-secure/desktop/

    With the built-in AutoSecure(TM) feature, you can define sets of
    files, directories, and Windows 95 folders that will be
    automatically encrypted and decrypted every time you start or
    close Windows.

- From this, it appears encrypted files are decrypted while windows is
open. Obviously if Windows crashes a lot of plaintext files can be
left lying around!

I prefer the methods of SecureDrive

  http://www.stack.urc.tue.nl/~galactus/remailers/securedrive.html

or Secure Device

  ftp://utopia.hacktic.nl/pub/replay/pub/disk/secdev14.arj

in which data is decrypted "on-the-fly" as it is transferred from
disk to memory.  The data is -always- encrypted on the disk. Both of
the above use strong IDEA encryption (same as PGP) and both are
free for non-commercial use. (Commercial use is possible by paying a
small royalty to the holders of the IDEA patent; see

  http://www.ascom.ch/systec

In contrast, F-Secure Desktop is $99 a copy.

Edgar W. Swank   <edgar@Garg.Campbell.CA.US>
                 (preferred)
Edgar W. Swank   <EdgarSwank@Juno.com>
Edgar W. Swank   <Edgar_W._Swank@ilanet.org>
Edgar W. Swank   <EdgarSwank@Freemark.com>
Home Page: http://members.tripod.com/~EdgarS/index.html

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edgar@Garg.Campbell.CA.US (Edgar Swank)
The Land of Garg BBS -- +1 408 378-5108