lap top safety and encryption software

[Diane]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Dear Friends:

I am a laptop user who travels constantly. Recently my laptop was
stolen on the airplane. Well it didn't make me too happy - especially
since I had sensitive company information on the computer. Needless to
say, the laptop could be replaced but the countless hours of work
couldn't..nor my sense of safety. It was truly frightening to know how
easy my important office documents could be compromised.

So I want to share this tip with the users out there who travel.
Whether you are a sales person, manager, lawyer, or doctor worried
about hipaa - whomever you really need to safeguard your data. I hope
you will try some encryption software to truly protect your
information. I went to www.encryptyourfiles.com and saw that they have
federally approved 256-bit encryption software. They seemed to be very
knowledgable, and they are FIPS certified - which means they have to
pass stringent federal computer security testing in order to get the
certification

I hope if I can just save one person's neck out there...I'll have done
my good deed for the day

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"diane" <gowire2000@yahoo.com> writes:
> Whether you are a sales person, manager, lawyer, or doctor worried
> about hipaa - whomever you really need to safeguard your data. I hope
> you will try some encryption software to truly protect your
> information. I went to www.imaspammingmoron.com and saw that they have
> federally approved 256-bit encryption software.

Die spammer die. See

http/www.thefreecountry.com/security/encryption.shtml

for links to lots of free encryption software.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"diane" <gowire2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I am a laptop user who travels constantly. Recently my laptop was
>stolen on the airplane.

I've got a custom BIOS splash screen, a BIOS password, a hard drive
password, and frequent backups, and I still keep track of my laptop
when traveling. I'm not convinced that encryption software for the
hard drive is any better than a (BIOS-level) hard disk password...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

In article <1104793506.533154.157840@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
diane <gowire2000@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I am a laptop user who travels constantly. Recently my laptop was
> stolen on the airplane.

On an airplane?!? Are you serious? It's such a captive group of people
you'd think no thief would be stupid enough to do a job there....

--

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Stolen on an airplane? Get a laptop bag that fits under the seat in front
of you--don't let it out of your sight.

"diane" <gowire2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1104793506.533154.157840@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Dear Friends:
>
> I am a laptop user who travels constantly. Recently my laptop was
> stolen on the airplane. Well it didn't make me too happy - especially
> since I had sensitive company information on the computer. Needless to
> say, the laptop could be replaced but the countless hours of work
> couldn't..nor my sense of safety. It was truly frightening to know how
> easy my important office documents could be compromised.
>
> So I want to share this tip with the users out there who travel.
> Whether you are a sales person, manager, lawyer, or doctor worried
> about hipaa - whomever you really need to safeguard your data. I hope
> you will try some encryption software to truly protect your
> information. I went to www.encryptyourfiles.com and saw that they have
> federally approved 256-bit encryption software. They seemed to be very
> knowledgable, and they are FIPS certified - which means they have to
> pass stringent federal computer security testing in order to get the
> certification
>
> I hope if I can just save one person's neck out there...I'll have done
> my good deed for the day
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Look at BE-Crypt, DES-Key.
There is also a complete hard drive replacment with hardware encryption, i
believe its only in 20GB capacities.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

<William P.N. Smith> wrote in message
news:l7njt01n8rbjlpnv1csk7c7kvbt6q1f440@4ax.com...
> "diane" <gowire2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>I am a laptop user who travels constantly. Recently my laptop was
>>stolen on the airplane.
>
> I've got a custom BIOS splash screen, a BIOS password, a hard drive
> password, and frequent backups, and I still keep track of my laptop
> when traveling. I'm not convinced that encryption software for the
> hard drive is any better than a (BIOS-level) hard disk password...

I don't think a harddrive password is a secure way of looking after
sensitive information - if the harddrive is taken out of the laptop, I'm
sure that it wouldn't be too hard to get to the unencrypted information
stored on it.

I would have thought the only real way of protecting information on your
laptop would be to encrypt the actual information - and I think the best way
of doing that is by hardware encryption, like that found on the Thinkpad T4x
range of laptops (some of which now come with fingerprint readers built in).
These build up a secure pyramid of passwords, where the root is a very long
prime number represented in the hardware chip, which is inaccessible and
unknown by anything but the chip itself. And the chip never has to
communicate this number externally (it probably can't), as it carries out
the decryption within the chip itself.

All BIOS passwords and harddrive passwords do is make the expensive items
(motherboard, harddrive) unusable for the thief, but doesn't really protect
the information that securely.

You might be right that encryption software is not any better than bios
passwords, but I would feel much safer knowing the information were
encrypted, expecially if it were done by hardware.

Duncan.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Duncan J Murray wrote:
>
> <William P.N. Smith> wrote in message
> news:l7njt01n8rbjlpnv1csk7c7kvbt6q1f440@4ax.com...
> > "diane" <gowire2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>I am a laptop user who travels constantly. Recently my laptop was
> >>stolen on the airplane.
> >
> > I've got a custom BIOS splash screen, a BIOS password, a hard drive
> > password, and frequent backups, and I still keep track of my laptop
> > when traveling. I'm not convinced that encryption software for the
> > hard drive is any better than a (BIOS-level) hard disk password...
>
> I don't think a harddrive password is a secure way of looking after
> sensitive information - if the harddrive is taken out of the laptop, I'm
> sure that it wouldn't be too hard to get to the unencrypted information
> stored on it.

As has been discussed, at length, in other threads, it's *very* hard.
(Have a look at Barry Watzman's excellent explanation in the "Inspiron
HD password" thread.)

Most thieves don't steal for the info you're carrying, they steal for
the hardware.

Notan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Duncan J Murray"
<duncan.murray@remove.this.bit.medical-school.and.this.bit.oxford.ac.uk>
wrote:
>I don't think a harddrive password is a secure way of looking after
>sensitive information - if the harddrive is taken out of the laptop, I'm
>sure that it wouldn't be too hard to get to the unencrypted information

As long as it's an order of magnitude more expensive for a thief to
get the data than to throw out my drive and have to buy a new one, I'm
pretty happy.

For different values of "secure" and "sensitive", the results might be
different.