I would like a few opinions on some encryption software for a USB thumb drive. There are a lot of them out there and wanted to know what ones you guys suggest.
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take a look here : https://portableapps.com/node/2605
You might want to take a look at TrueCrypt Encryption software.
I use it on all three of my memory sicks. You can encrypt part of a drive or the whole drive. If you encrypt the whole drive you'll need to install TrueCrypt on the computer to access your USB. Probably better to creat a TrueCrypt file and you can then make it Portable on your USB. It just depends on what you need the encryption for.
http://www.truecrypt.org/ (Home Page)
http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=videos/truecrypt1 (Audio Intro)
http://b-con.us/security/truecrypt_intro.php (Written Walk Thru)
Jeff Balliett
The problem with truecrypt is you need admin privileges to run it and you don't normally get them when you want to use portable apps.
works with folders too.
just checked the site and it says yadadisc is currently unavailable?
anyone know why?
Graham Yates
I found that it doesn't work with read only files (probably because it can't delete them after encryption). When using it for folders it also leaves the empty folder structure behind.
you do need to make sure nothing is read only though (I beleive that's the same with any software of this type however)
so are we saying yaddisc is not really suitable in its security?
Also i have just come accross remora diskguard, is this any good?
Graham Yates
Are you comfortable with someone seeing the directory structure of the files that are encrypted by yadabytedisk?
As for the read-only files, I think I got an error (but it's been awhile since I tried it so I could be wrong) when it couldn't delete a file. I could go and remove the read-only flag fron everything but I figure that it must have been there for a reason.
make sure everything ISN'T read only, and you don't see any drectory structure, just a yadadisc file (which could contain anything, juat like how a pgp container disk does.
OTOH, I'm using TrueCrypt on my work and home PCs (administrator on both) and it hides everything. It also much faster than yadbytedisk and other similar programs. Of course I will be out of luck if I ever use a PC without admin privs.
places like librairies, most businesses (if they have any sense) will only let you have limited or "power user" access rights, as this forum has shown time and time again that we'd all use true crypt, but there are too many instances where we just can't because of the access right proble.
so does anyone have any experience of remora disk gu
Graham Yates
I played with it a little bit and it was ok. Having a command line interface would have been nice so that you can script encryption and decryption. Being able to use a batch file doesn't make it transparent like TrueCrypt, but it's the closest thing.
Hello Group;
I do not understand this discussion about Admin Rights.
Both true crypt and cryptainer do run in a portable mode. You do need to install the basic program on some PC. But then you can install a version if I can use this term on to a USB drive and run the application from any PC. You can uninstal the one from the PC you had to install it on to originally. Then use it on the same PC from the USB.
I have made volumes from my USB on a number of PC's.
Am I missing the point some where?
Frank D. Hubeny
Admin rights refers to the rights of the account you are logged in with. These fall into one of three categories: admin, limited or guest. On your own PC, you're an admin. On an office computer, you're usually limited. On a hotel computer, net cafe or library, it's usually limited or guest. TrueCrypt will only work from a portable device when you're logged in with admin rights. Without them, it will not work. So, while you can encrypt with TrueCrypt, you can't use it on many PCs you'll encounter. But, if you're only using it at your own house or a friend's house, it will work.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hello John
Would this not apply to all programs and devices then? Your Firefox portable, and my or anyone's USB drive?
I mean that I could take my USB drive some where and not be able to use anything from it?
Frank D. Hubeny
It only applies to stuff like TrueCrypt which needs to run a system-level driver to encrypt and decrypt and mount the encrypted partition. All of the apps here will run on any version of Windows (when the base app supports it) and on any level account.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Keeping the contents of your disk drives or portable devices encrypted is at best only a partial solution. There is always swap memory, Tempest, keyloggers and many other issues to consider.
Perhaps, my app SDS is my attempt to keep e-mail communications between two parties secret. It is to address e-mail security holistically. IMHO, the strongest feature is the signature-free technology where any digital object is encrypted without leaving any trace as to whether it is an mp3, pdf doc, etc.
This app is free for personal use. The download info was posted in this forum.
Bryan