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StrictI bought one of those USB flash “thumb drives” (a Cruzer Mini 256MB) a while back, and I keep it on my keychain. This has come in terribly handy when I need to move files around, but I’ve always been worried about keeping anything private or confidential on there. With my track record of losing my keys, I’d hate to think what would happen if someone found my drive and was able to start snooping around.
The drive came with a very lame program called “CruzerLock” that has a very un-intuitive interface. You basically had to drag any files you wanted to work with to and from its program window, and hope you remember to copy the files back (and delete the copies you made!) when you’re done. I ditched it in about three minutes.
After a bit of looking around at other “free” encryption packages (most of which are crippled versions of pay-to-use products), I came across TrueCrypt, a free, open-source encryption program for Windows XP/2000. TrueCrypt can either create a “container” file or encrypt an entire partition. It then “mounts” this file or partition as a regular drive after you supply the passphrase to unlock it. For the truly paranoid, it also offers the ability to create “hidden” containers within the main container.
Anyone who is interested in keeping private date secure should check out this wonderful, well-written, and easy-to-use program.
http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/
June 7th, 2005 at 6:26 am
I agree. I test freeware on a fairly regular basis, and I tend to be VERY fussy when giving out "scores" or ratings. In the freeware arena, I’ve yet to find anything else that even remotely approaches what Truecrypt is and does. Yes, truly good, "commercial-grade" freeware DOES exist. You just have to know how and where to look for it. My 2 cents. :-)
June 10th, 2005 at 4:06 am
Uh huh, TrueCrypt helped me out with my PNY 512 meg flash drive as well. Use it for transferring stuff between computers (work / home etc.). I’ll probably talk about it on my blog too if I get the chance.