Have you tried TrueCrypt 5?

What are your experiences with TrueCrypt 5?

I took the plunge the other day and installed TrueCrypt 5. I have found it adds a layer of protection for my files that is far superior to a power on password and windows password. The system boot is a little slower and I was a little disappointed to find I can no longer use hybernation, but I guess it's a fair to lose some functionality in exchange for better protection.

I would definitely recommend it. Thanks for the tip, Orev!

 

I have used truecrypt since v4.3 and v5.0 seems to work fine. Thanks for the hibernation warning i will stick to mounted encrypted volumes. One question: Is it possible to encrypt a usb stick the same way you encrypt a system drive?

 

Yes you can encrypt a USB stick. I purchased a CORSAIR Flash Voyager 4GB USB Flash Drive and it actually came with TrueCrypt.

 

I am using version 4.2 on my WindowsXP HP notebook since 2005. And I like it very much.
I intend to install version 5.0a on my new dv9700t CTO in the coming days.

 

Glad you found the guide. I hadn't posted it anywhere except in my sig

 

Not sure which version I'm using, but I have been using it for a while. I'm not doing whole disk encryption, just file based, I guess. I pretty much just use it for my financial based data.

 

5.0 just came out last week. It adds some nice features, but in general it works the same as before, and is supposed to be a bit faster.

 

I recommend checking out Orev's web site found in his sig as well. Some very useful information there. Laptop's are very easily stolen and therefore we should take extra precautions in securing our valuable information.

http://directedge.us/

 

My office has used TrueCrypt many times, I'm not sure which version because it have been awhile since I've used it. We send a lot of confidential information to clients so we use this program to either encrypt a entire volume, or to encrypt a group of files. It is a great tool, but I don't know if I would encrypt my entire HDD with it. If I were to use it to encrypt my HDD, I wouldn't encrypt the OS partition, but create another partition for all my personal files. I just don't trust encryption on my system drive, because if something happens I have to reformat.

For those of you using HP laptops and Dell laptops (I don't know about other laptop manufacturers), you have the ability to use a Hardware password for your HDD. Inside of BIOS in the security section there will be a section to put in a boot and HDD password. When you use the HDD password, the HDD becomes useless if you don't have it in that laptop and use that password. I'm a forensic analyst and have imaged HDDs with the encryption on, and it will only read 0's from the HDD unless the password is taken off or inserted while in the laptop. When you use a HDD hardware password, think of the password as a bridge between the motherboard on the HDD and the data on the platters, without the password you can't access the data. Now if you put the HDD in the laptop and clear the password in BIOS you can take the HDD out and read everything, but while you have a password set, you can't do anything with the HDD without the password.

 

Well, the major feature with 5.0 is that you can encrypt the system drive, which as stated, is more crucial for a laptop than a desktop in most cases.

 

Yes I can see why people would want to do that, but when you have hardware encryption, why go through the hassle of using software to encrypt it? I mean you could do both if your that scared that your data will fall into bad hands, but in 99.9% of cases, the hardware encryption will be enough, and won't slow down your computer like the software encryption will.

 

My home version notebook (Pavilion) does not have the ability to set a HDD password, but perhaps the HP business class notebooks do. I have the ability to set "power on" and "BIOS" passwords only. I believe the Dell home version notebooks have this ability to set the multiple passwords including a HDD password.

TrueCrypt will definitely provide greater security for those with home version HP notebooks.

Does anyone know if you can image the encryted OS partition with lets say Acronis? I was going to re-image my drive since using TrueCrypt. If you could successfully do this then if you run into trouble with the encryted OS partition you can always use your backup image to restore.

 

While I think TC is great, I would guess that pgp/gpg or a zip file with a password would be better/more standard way to do that?

I think it is only the business versions that do that. When you add or remove a password in the BIOS, how long does it take for it to apply? If only a few seconds, I would guess that it's not actually encrypting the data? Re-encrypting to the password seems like it would take a long time. What of you were to replace the circuit board on the drive with one from an identical drive? Does that allow you to access the data without the password?

The only other thing I can think of is that in that case, the data is always encrypted, but until there is a password set, the encryption key is open for anyone to use.

Anyway, I guess I'm just putting down my thoughts on that topic

 

The HDD and boot password is not only on the business line for HP. I owned a dv6000z and it had both the boot password and HDD password. It doesn't encrypt the data on the HDD, it makes it impossible to read the data on the HDD. Like I stated before the password is like a bridge and without it you cannot ready any data from the drive, only 0's. I've imaged bit for bit a BIOS password encrypted HDD from a HP laptop and it only read 0's. Once I removed the password it read all the data from the HDD. It doesn't take long to apply, because it doesn't encrypt the data, it makes the data unreadable unless you provide the password to create a link between the computer and the HDD.

From my research on the topic in regards to both Dell and HP laptops, you cannot just replace the system board on the HDD, because there is a link that is created between the HDD and the laptop.

I do know for a fact though that this HDD and boot password is available on HP's personal laptops as well, unless they changed from the dv6000z model, which I highly doubt.

 

This link you are talking about between the computer and the HDD, can you not overcome this by swapping the HDD into another system? If you can't it sounds like the HDD has a chip that allows for a form of encryption of the data since the data itself is not encrypted. I did not think that existed...yet.

I did update my BIOS to the latest version, so I'll check again in case I missed something that wasn't in the earlier versions wrt the HDD password.

 

No, you can't swap the HDD out and put it into another system to bypass the password. There is a chip on a lot of HDDs that allows for the hardware encryption, and like I said I've come across HP HDD's that I had to have the person clear the password out because I couldn't read the HDD with my forensic tools when the password was enabled.

 

Hypothetically speaking then, if I owned a dv6000z and I had the HDD password set in the BIOS and my motherboard died, I couldn't access my data on that HDD by installing it into another dv6000z and resetting the password?

If this is true, and I understand how Truecrypt actually works, it seems to be a better option than setting a HDD password because it allows for a HDD to be transfered to another machine and use the created boot disk to access the data.

 

I haven't tested putting the HDD into another laptop and inputting the password. I haven't researched completely whether it is a relationship between the motherboard and HDD or whether it is simply a password stored on the HDD and as long as you input the password into another of the same model laptop it will work. I don't have a couple of the same model HP laptops laying around. I would call HP tech support but that would just waste my time because they don't know anything.

 

Envision, as a forensic analyst you may be able to explore this angle of attack when you are attempting to recover data from these passworded HDD's especially if the user won't supply the password.

Please let me know if you try this out. I would be interested in finding out if it was successful.

Btw, both the dv9260us and dv9030us (Intel based systems) have an "Administrative" and "Power On" password in the BIOS, not HDD password.

 

Yes, tell the whole Internet how to make your job harder

Now this has gone pretty far off topic. Sorry, I think it is my fault.

 

Don't apologize. Sometimes taking a "left at Albuquerque" makes for some useful dialogue, albeit it may stray a little off the original topic.

 

Just for another data point, my dv6449 with the latest BIOS update does not offer this option.