Re: "Stand Alone" Hard Disk Encryption for Home/Personal PCs and Laptops

[Eric Jernigan <eric.jernigan () PCC EDU>]

Hello former neighbor, Chris,

For your at home user base, I recommend SafeHouse Explorer
http://www.safehousesoftware.com/SafeHouseExplorer.aspx .It is a file/folder
encryption program and not full disk encryption. I recommend it over
TrueCrypt because the amount of support and instruction resources are very
extensive. Both their site and the app have videos, tutorials, and tip
sheets. The only caveat is that if you use it on a flash drive, save room
for the app itself. You have to install it in order to use it. For most user
circumstances, I recommend this solution. They just need to save to the
secure volume consciously. For users who had difficulty with it, I
recommended that they avoid working with critical information, especially
PII.

TrueCrypt is fantastic but I believe IT folks try to use it beyond its
design limits. On some occasions, I got error messages on startup that said
the disc volume was corrupt/missing. Either on restart the message didn't
repeat and I could bootup like normal or I could use the mandatory rescue
disc. For many users, this can be a bit terrifying. If you are not worried
about the tech level of users at the "U" Truecrypt will serve them well. One
weird fact, When I ran Truecrypt on an XPSP3 laptop, I noticed LESS latency.
It seems like a RAM upgrade. Backup images (encrypted) required 18 DVDs.

With any solution you will need to prepare the Help Desk and have training
material/communication to the user base as well. 

People are covering native encryption products well enough that I will
refrain to talk on that. 

Eric Jernigan (Weber State Alumni)
Information Security Manager, 
Technology Solution Services
Portland Community College
PO Box 19000
Portland OR 97280-0990
503-977-4896
Eric.jernigan () pcc edu
http://www.pcc.edu/resources/tss/info-security/
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-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Kidd [mailto:chris.kidd () UTAH EDU] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 10:22 AM
Subject: "Stand Alone" Hard Disk Encryption for Home/Personal PCs and
Laptops

Does anyone have a list of hard disk encryption software suitable for
end-users' personal Windows or Mac based PCs and laptops (i.e. relatively
easy to use given no support will be provided by the organization)?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

Chris Kidd
Information Security and Privacy Office
University of Utah
650 Komas Drive, Suite 102
Salt Lake City, UT 84108
Office: 801.587.9241
Cell: 801.747.9028
chris.kidd () utah edu 

http://www.secureit.utah.edu