t61p - full disk encryption option

Is the full disk encryption option worth it for an everyday user? I might have some occasional financial info on my system but that is about it. I've also read some info about the FDE having better power consumption and running quieter. Is there any truth to this? Should I skip it or get it??

 

If you NEED encryption you know it. If you have to ask then you probably don't. Are you a corporate officer or government official who travels a lot? Do you keep critical security info on your machine? Probably not eh?

It is very easy to encrypt the individual files you need to keep safe with other software. I am a network admin and I keep a lot of very important files on my computer encrypted with PGP. I leave the rest alone. FDE is another layer to slow down your machine. That level or encryption is very processor intensive and I have to imagine it slows things down a lot. But I have never used it.

No need to encrypt the entire disk if you don't need it. Google for PGP and WinPT for free, military-grade encryption.

Greg.

 

Now I might be paranoid, but IMO FDE/BDE (Seagate/Hitachi) should be an everyday user option, just not at the price that it is being offered by Lenovo. In matter of fact the average user doesn’t like to hassle with file encryption applications or even password management tools, with FDE/BDE the average user could gain an extra layer of protection for his/her data whiteout much of a hassle or performance drop. Also FDE/BDE encrypts everything on the HD including IE saved passwords, Outlook passwords, Swap file (too paranoid?) … most tools that encrypts specific files usually don’t take care of that.
Keep in mind that FDE/BDE is not a perfect data security solution, it will only protect your data at boot time (requires an additional password at boot), so it will only protect your data if your laptop gets stolen. A Trojan on a running computer with FDE/BDE will still have a complete access to the user data, while with data encryption tools the data might still be protected – for the files that where not decrypted.

I don’t believe that FDE/BDE HDs have better power consumption and run quieter. Most of these HDs are just the same as the non FDE/BDE HDs, but with an additional encryption module. So in matter of fact, I would assume that it would consume more power and add some latency, but it should be negligible (and are claimed to be "as good as", by the manufacturers).

If you are looking into buying an HD with FDE/BDE and want to save some money: my guess is that in a couple of months the Hitachi BDE drive would be available in online stores and might just be $20-$30 more than the non BDE ones.
For more information, try: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=47004