Re: [OM] [OT] Encryption advice

[Chuck Norcutt]

Thanks.  Those sound like some pretty nasty "features" for a technology 
that has been around since probably before Vista.  Anyhow, I don't want 
full disk encryption (especially of the boot drive) for exactly the type 
of problems that you've mentioned.  TrueCrypt and FreeOTFE are able to 
create a virtual disk which is simply an ordinary file on the OS.  I had 
assumed that BitLocker could do that as well but apparently not.  It's 
limited to real hardware but can do removable drives.  That would 
probably be sufficient but not my preference.  So I'll stay away from 
BitLocker due to price and function if nothing else.  I was also sad to 
note that Symantec PGP doesn't work well either.
Anyone else?

Chuck Norcutt


On 6/27/2014 10:59 AM, Paul Braun wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 7:44 AM, Chuck Norcutt <
> chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > I've decided that I'd like to have a small, virtual disk where everything
> > on the disk is encrypted.  It would be used to hold things like password
> > lists, tax returns or anything else that I wouldn't want divulged for
> > personal security reasons.  I do use some encryption software today on
> > individual files but would like the convenience of having everything on a
> > given disk be automatically encrypted and decrypted.  Just give a single
> > password at boot time to activate the encrypted disk and be done with it
> > for the day.
> >
> > I had recently read a recommendation to use a free product called
> > "TrueCrypt".  I had noted the link but, when I went to download the product
> > and figure out how to use it the website informed me that the product had
> > been withdrawn and to use Microsoft BitLocker instead. BitLocker is
> > probably just fine but, for a Win7 "Home Premium" user, requires an upgrade
> > to Win7 "Ultimate" for $140.
> Just FYI - with our current migration to the corporate domain and corporate
> standard Win7 desktop computer setup, we have been forced to use BitLocker
> on all machines.  We have discovered that BitLocker does some nasty things,
> like preventing us from booting from a utility flash drive to try and run
> chkdsk on a corrupted drive, or do any other troubleshooting.  We've also
> discovered that BitLocker recognizes a USB-connected printer as a
> threatening storage device, and locks the computer on boot. Same thing for
> software license dongles.  Unless that's some sort of boneheaded setting by
> the corporate desktop guys, the ONLY way we can work around it is to unplug
> the offending devices, power the CPU off, and reboot.  Once you see the
> Windows splash screen, plug the stuff back in.  It's exceptionally
> annoying.  And I've been lucky - several of the techs have come across
> boxes that got locked out from random BitLocker nonsense, and since
> corporate won't give us the instructions to unlock them, we've had to pull
> them out of service and completely re-image.
>
> According to one of my bosses, BitLocker annoyances are usually one of the
> top items for discussion during every weekly corporate IT director
> conference calls, so it's nice to know that pretty much every hospital in
> the system hates it.
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