TrueCrypt is Truly Cool

Security is a pretty big thing now a days. Everywhere you look there is personal information getting stolen and abused. A friend of mine mentioned to me several months ago about a security software he's been using for some time. I wasn't really interested at the time because I really didn't see the need for it. Recently I noticed that I'm having a lot of personal information sitting on my work computer that I'd rather not have my employer or coworkers getting access to. So I emailed my friend and he was kind enough to tell me again the name of the software. The software is called TrueCrypt.

This software is pretty darn cool. I was up and running in less than five minutes. I was a little daunted at first in getting started but they include a very good tutorial (PDF) on how to install (installation is optional) and start using TrueCrypt.

TrueCrypt let's you create an encrypted volume that then can be mounted as a drive. It has oodles of options for encryption types, hash methods, etc... When a volume is mounted, the encryption is seamless and done on the fly. When a volume is unmounted, the data is encrypted and unreadable. To mount a volume, a strong password is required.

One cool feature is that you can put TrueCrypt's software files on a USB flash drive and then put the encrypted volume on the same USB flash drive. This allows you to carry your information with you in an encrypted format and be able to access it whenever you need it (you will need admin privileges on the computer that you try to run TrueCrypt on).

Another nice feature is that they have both Windows and Linux versions of their software and their encrypted volumes are compatible with either version. The Windows version allows you to setup 'Hot Keys' that will mount the drive and unmount the drive quickly. Unfortunately the Linux version is command line only, which isn't terrible but makes it less usable for those wanting the 'Hot Keys' functionality.

I definitely recommend this tool.

http://www.truecrypt.org