NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, December 2012
How to Keep Data on Your Laptop Secure
by Leo Notenboom
http://www.articlesbyleo.com/

http://www.ask-leo.com

Understandably, the biggest fear most people have about losing their laptops, is not actually centered on the laptop itself. The biggest fear is having sensitive information end up in the wrong hands. Most can handle the material loss, but all that data in the hands of malicious individuals is scary!

There is a solution which is secure, fairly easy, and best of all, free.

Of course, you can just encrypt all of your data with different archiving tools which allow you to assign each file a password. The problem associated with this method is that these passwords are often easy to crack and this process is a pretty big hassle.

Instead, consider the free, open source program called TrueCrypt. This software provides industrial-strength encryption while being very easy to use.

TrueCrypt can be used many ways, but the two most common are:
* Encrypting an entire disk such as a floppy disc, USB thumb drive, or entire hard disk.
* Creating an encrypted virtual disk container or “volume”.

The latter approach is the easiest for copying entire containers from machine to machine.

Truecrypt simply mounts the encrypted virtual disk so that it appears as an additional drive on your laptop. You enter the pass phrase once when you mount the virtual drive and from then on everything read from there is decrypted and everything written there is encrypted automatically.

For example, you can have Truecrypt generate a drive called C:/windows/secritstuff. Then, if someone were to look at that file directly, they’d see nothing but random gibberish as a result of the encryption. When you use TrueCrypt to mount the virtual drive (such as selecting the drive letter “P”) then that drive – P: – would look just like any other disk on the machine. Every file placed in the drive is encrypted, so encryption becomes as easy as simply moving your sensitive files into that drive.

While the encrypted drive is mounted, the contents can be accessed in their unencrypted form by any program you wish to use to access them.

The trick is to set the drive so that it never mounts automatically. As your machine boots up the virtual drive would be nowhere to be found. The corresponding file c:/windows/secritstuff would be visible only as encrypted gibberish. Someone trying to access your files would only find that.

The data is not accessible until you use the TrueCrypt software to select the file at c:/windows/secritstuff, choose the drive to mount it as P: and type the correct pass phrase.

TrueCrypt also supports a variety of high-powered encryption algorithms. TrueCrypt documentation is obviously targeting the overly paranoid, including directions on how to use “plausible deniability” if a thief ever forced you to give them your password. Let’s all hope that’s just an extreme of little probability for most of us.

Here are a few warnings:
* The passphrase or word you use is going to be the weakest link. Encryption is still easily cracked if you use a bad password. If you choose a passphrase which is easy or obvious, then a dictionary attack can always be mounted on your machine to unlock the encrypted volume quickly.
* Having an encrypted volume is useless if your important files are also elsewhere in unencrypted form on your machine.
* Be sure to have secure backups which are updated regularly. It’s preferable to keep these unencrypted, but secure, just in case you lose the encrypted volume or happen to forget the password. Without your password, the data cannot be recovered.
* Understand that files are never 100% secure. All encryption can theoretically get hacked. The reason for encryption is to make the effort and cost of hacking the files so astronomical that it is simply impractical.

Data encryption is a very important aspect of an overall security strategy. Keeping your important files secure doesn’t require much more than forethought and planning. With spyware and viruses running rampant, not to mention possible theft, there is really no excuse not to take the little bit of time and save yourself a lot of grief should the unthinkable happen.

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