Truecrypt 5.0 -- Better than Ever
I posted about Truecrypt back in 2006 on the old version of this blog. A few days ago, Truecrypt version 5.0 was released with a number of nice improvements, including the ability to encrypt the boot drive. From the announcement:
We are pleased to announce that TrueCrypt 5.0 has been released. Among the new features are the ability to encrypt a system partition or entire system drive (i.e. a drive where Windows is installed) with pre-boot authentication, pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100%, Mac OS X version, graphical interface for the Linux version, XTS mode, SHA-512, and more.
Every I said about how nice Truecrypt was back in 2006 is even more true today. The new version makes it even easier to keep your private data private. While the CEOs for some large companies and many governments (including the US government, unfortunately) seem to think no one really needs privacy -- everyone both needs and appreciates privacy. Truecrypt can help you protect yours from prying eyes. Check it out. It's free and open source.
Operating System: Windows, Linux, MacOS
Price: Free
Web Site: http://www.truecrypt.org/
Comments
4 comments posted[...] posted about TrueCrypt before (here and here). Encryption software like TrueCrypt has become even more important with all the reports [...]
There's no doubt that TrueCrypt slows down access to files. Hardware encryption built in to drives is probably the only realistic way to greatly minimize that.
That said, I don't use Truecrypt to encypt entire drives -- especially not a boot drive. I just use to to either create encrypted drives in a file and store the few things I need to protect there or set up a separate small encrypted drive and only use it for files that need to be kept from others.
I installed TrueCrypt on my laptop and ran some benchmark tests.
Benchmark Results:
http://www.full-disk-encryption.net/wiki/index.php/TrueCrypt#Benchmarks
Pros:
1) Easy to use product. Simple clean interface. Very user-friendly!
2) Free and Open Source
3) Multiple Encryption and Hashing algorithm available.
Cons:
1) Buffered Read and Buffered Transfer Rate was almost halved after TrueCrypt FDE was enabled :-(.
2) Access Time for large file (250+MB) increased by 11%.
3) The initial encryption of the 120 GB HDD took 2 hours.
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI posted about Truecrypt back in 2006 on the old version of this blog. A few days ago, Truecrypt version 5.0 was released with a number of nice improvements, including the ability to encrypt the boot drive. From the announcement: We are … [...]