TrueCrypt - Disk Encryption Software - OPINIONS?

[Tecknomage]

I just became aware of "TrueCrypt" - Disk Encryption Software....
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Anyone tried this? Opinions?



--
=========== Tecknomage ===========
Computer Systems Specialist
ComputerHelpForum.org Staff Member
IT Technician
San Diego, CA

 

[Ant]

I just became aware of "TrueCrypt" - Disk Encryption Software....
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Anyone tried this? Opinions?

It's awesome. Others and I use it (its container feature) for sensitive
datas. It's popular and free (donations) too. Also, it is cross platform
compatible with Mac OS X and Linux as well.
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Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]]

I just became aware of "TrueCrypt" - Disk Encryption Software....

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Anyone tried this? Opinions?

Good stuff, use it.

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

 

[Mark F]

It's awesome. Others and I use it (its container feature) for sensitive
datas. It's popular and free (donations) too. Also, it is cross platform
compatible with Mac OS X and Linux as well.

It's good missing one feature:
. support for multiple container files for one encryption disk.
There is not a good way to backup a 1TB container file over the web.

It would be much better if you could have multiple container files
for one virtual disk, similar to VMware virtual disks. (Where I
don't mind another performance hit, I make a VMware virtual disk
and put the TrueCrypt container file inside.)

I'd like to go one step further than VMware and allow for the
size of the container files to be a parameter, as, for example,
2GB might be fine for LAN backup, but not for WAN backup.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I just became aware of "TrueCrypt" - Disk Encryption Software....
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Anyone tried this? Opinions?

If you had crossposted instead of multiposting, the replies in all the
newsgroups would be visible in each group.

 

[VanguardLH]

I just became aware of "TrueCrypt" - Disk Encryption Software....
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Anyone tried this? Opinions?

See replies to your SAME post that you separately MULTI-posted in other
newsgroups. Now you'll have to remember to which other newsgroups you
multi-posted and go check each of them for replies instead of
maintaining the discussion within a single cross-posted thread.

Learn to cross-post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/xpost.html

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Tecknomage wrote:

See replies to your SAME post that you separately MULTI-posted in other
newsgroups. Now you'll have to remember to which other newsgroups you
multi-posted and go check each of them for replies instead of
maintaining the discussion within a single cross-posted thread.

Learn to cross-post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/xpost.html

Thanks - your remarks on cross-posting and multi-posting, complete with
links, are more helpful than my post.

Looks like it's time to copy your links so I can emulate you in the
future. (And so I did.)

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Thanks - your remarks on cross-posting and multi-posting, complete with
links, are more helpful than my post.

Looks like it's time to copy your links so I can emulate you in the future.
(And so I did.)

OTOH, the Wikipedia article says (I'll copy and paste):

"Multiposting is the preferred[by whom?] way to post the same
information to multiple channels."

That is neither what you said nor what I believe...

 

[Stan Brown]

I just became aware of "TrueCrypt" - Disk Encryption Software....
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Anyone tried this? Opinions?

I love it and use it on my USB stick. I no longer worry about the
possibility of leaving it behind, with student records and other
embarrassing material.

I'm thinking of using it to encrypt my data partitions (as opposed to
C:, the programs partition) on my laptop, but I haven't made a
decision yet.

 

[Stan Brown]

Thanks - your remarks on cross-posting and multi-posting, complete with
links, are more helpful than my post.

Looks like it's time to copy your links so I can emulate you in the
future. (And so I did.)

Ahem. Here's one more:
http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/unice.htm
It includes crossposting, proper quoting and attributions, and more.
(Yes, I'm the author.)

 

[Stan Brown]

OTOH, the Wikipedia article says (I'll copy and paste):

"Multiposting is the preferred[by whom?] way to post the same
information to multiple channels."

That is neither what you said nor what I believe...

Golly, a mistake in Wikipedia. I'm shocked! shocked!

Recently I found out that my "FAQ of the Rings" was cited in a
Wikipedia article and my name given as Dan Brown!

 

[Ken Blake]

OTOH, the Wikipedia article says (I'll copy and paste):

"Multiposting is the preferred[by whom?] way to post the same
information to multiple channels."

That is neither what you said nor what I believe...

Ugh! Wikipedia is dead wrong in this instance, as far as I'm
concerned. Multiposting just fragments the thread, so someone who
answers in one newsgroup doesn't always get to see answers from others
in another newsgroup. And for those who read all the newsgroups the
message is multiposted to, they see the message multiple times instead
of once (they would see it only once if you correctly crossposted
instead). This wastes everyone's time, and gets you poorer help than
you should get.

 

[Ken Blake]

Ahem. Here's one more:
http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/unice.htm
It includes crossposting, proper quoting and attributions, and more.
(Yes, I'm the author.)

Good article. One suggestion for improvement, though. You say

"Don't shout

"Posting in ALL CAPITALS is the written equivalent of shouting, and
many people consider it very rude. Don’t do it: it’s bad strategy to
annoy the people that you’re asking to help you."

But over and above annoying people, all caps is very hard to read, and
the result is that many of us often ignore posts that are all caps. So
it fails to get help from some people who might help you.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

OTOH, the Wikipedia article says (I'll copy and paste):

"Multiposting is the preferred[by whom?] way to post the same
information to multiple channels."

That is neither what you said nor what I believe...

Golly, a mistake in Wikipedia. I'm shocked! shocked!

Recently I found out that my "FAQ of the Rings" was cited in a
Wikipedia article and my name given as Dan Brown!

It wouldn't surprise me if it turns out that the text was changed after
VLH collected the URL. Wikipedia is open in that way...

 

[Peter Jason]

I just became aware of "TrueCrypt" - Disk Encryption Software....
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Anyone tried this? Opinions?

I use it with detachable thumb drives and I can hide these in remote
locations if necessary. Each thumb drive has its twin backup hidden
off site.

The FBI might have required TrueCrypt to register its software, and
backdoor entry to it and encrypted drives, in the interests of
"national security". It would be safe to bet this has happened.

The record of USB thumbdrive activity is kept in the registry under
the name USBSTOR, but software exists to expunge these records. I
still have not found it however.

 

[Stan Brown]

The FBI might have required TrueCrypt to register its software, and
backdoor entry to it and encrypted drives, in the interests of
"national security". It would be safe to bet this has happened.

I'm as ready as the next one to believe that the gummint is
subverting our privacy, but do you have any evidence at all for this
shocking claim, or is it pure paranoia?

TrueCrypt is open source, so it would be rather hard to hide any back
doors.

 

[Stan Brown]

Good article. One suggestion for improvement, though. You say

"Don't shout

"Posting in ALL CAPITALS is the written equivalent of shouting, and
many people consider it very rude. Don?t do it: it?s bad strategy to
annoy the people that you?re asking to help you."

But over and above annoying people, all caps is very hard to read, and
the result is that many of us often ignore posts that are all caps. So
it fails to get help from some people who might help you.

Good suggestion. I've done it.

 

[Ken Blake]

Good suggestion. I've done it.

Glad to hear it, and you're welcome.

 

[Ashton Crusher]

I'm as ready as the next one to believe that the gummint is
subverting our privacy, but do you have any evidence at all for this
shocking claim, or is it pure paranoia?

TrueCrypt is open source, so it would be rather hard to hide any back
doors.

I used to use DriveCrypt but they were so slow in making their
software compatible with one of the version of windows that I gave up
and tried TruCrypt. I found it worked just as well and as a bonus I
felt more secure with the open source making it less likely that the
gvt got a back door into it somehow.

This thread reminded me of the uproar quite a few years ago now when
there was a plan to require all passkeys for some system (don't recall
what) to be filed with the gvt. So it's not like the gvt has not
tried to do it in the past.

 

[Ashton Crusher]

OTOH, the Wikipedia article says (I'll copy and paste):

"Multiposting is the preferred[by whom?] way to post the same
information to multiple channels."

That is neither what you said nor what I believe...

Ugh! Wikipedia is dead wrong in this instance, as far as I'm
concerned. Multiposting just fragments the thread, so someone who
answers in one newsgroup doesn't always get to see answers from others
in another newsgroup. And for those who read all the newsgroups the
message is multiposted to, they see the message multiple times instead
of once (they would see it only once if you correctly crossposted
instead). This wastes everyone's time, and gets you poorer help than
you should get.

The way I have agent set up it automatically keeps track of
multiposted messages and only shows one of the many copies as new. The
way things get screwed up is if people add more groups in the middle
of a thread or otherwise "break the chain" established by the original
poster. When the same post is made individually in multiple
newsgroups is when it creates a problem because then it shows up as
new in all of them plus different people answer in different
newsgroups and the answers/thread gets all messed up with bits and
pieces everywhere. WIkipedia is right.