Robin1953
Ashton, WV
Senior Member
Joined: 04/21/2002
View Profile
 Offline
|
msmith1199 wrote:What's the best (and least combersome) method to secure the data on your computer? And what I mean by that is I want to protect information on my computer in case the entire computer gets stolen. And hopefully, I don't have to use some system that requires me to use a password every single time I try and open a new file. I already have the power up password set. So whenever I turn the computer on I do have to enter the password as the computer starts up, but my understanding is this is easy to by-pass in order to get to the data on the computer. What I'm looking for is some way to protect all of my documents and pictures and scanned images so in the event the computer is stolen nobody (other than maybe the CIA) can access those files, while at the same time not having to continually enter passwords or assign passwords every time I creat a document. My bank account information (on Quicken) is protected by it's own password so it's good, but I want the same with everything else and hopefully in a manner where I only have to enter a password once for me to access everything. Any ideas?
I used this application for several years while I was still working. FolderLock
Robin Brumfield
2004 Ford F350 PSD XC
2012 Jayco Eagle SuperLite 31.5RLTS
|
JayWalker2009
USA
Senior Member
Joined: 08/11/2009
View Profile
|
Unless you use a password, it's really almost impossible to protect anything as if you can access it w/out it, so can a thief.
Unless you use an external drive, but that is probably not going to help much as that would likely be stolen too if a theif were to come in and take the computer.
I put important docs on thumb drives that I remove and put elsewhere when finished editing or viewing.
|
mlslcan
Home
New Member
Joined: 02/18/2009
View Profile
Offline
|
One option is to upgrade to the enterprise or ultimate editions of windows 7 and use the bitlocker whole disk encryption feature. You would enter the password one time at boot up.
There are other commercial versions of whole disk encryption available for instance PGP WDE from Symantec.
Since you mentioned a business they make network attached storage devices that use hardware based encryption to store the data on. This would be useful if you had multiple computers and wanted to share the files between them. You would enter the password when you connect to the shared drives. This is probably the most expensive route unless you have several systems that need the whole disk encryption software.
Here is a link to a wike article that does a basic comparison of software
whole disk encrypt wiki
Mike
|
msmith1199
Central, CA
Senior Member
Joined: 10/07/2001
View Profile
|
I don't have enought to do a separate network, but if Windows 7 Ultimate has that feature that sounds like the way to go.
2004 National Tropi-Cal T-350, Class A, Triple slide, 330 HP Cat DP.
2006 Dodge Dakota 4x4 or
2002 Harley FLSTF Fat Boy on a Trailer or
2004 Polaris Quad on the Trailer
|
msmith1199
Central, CA
Senior Member
Joined: 10/07/2001
View Profile
|
Okay, looked at the info on Windows 7 with Bitlocker and that looks like the way to go. It comes right from Microsoft so shouldn't have to worry about coming from a company that used an Antartica address for their home office. Thanks for the info.
|
|
|
1492
No. Virginia
Senior Member
Joined: 04/08/2005
View Profile
|
Just note that software based encryption schemes can possibly be compromised by retrieving the key from memory. For about the same price as upgrading WIN 7 to Ultimate, you may also want to look at hardware solutions. Such as using an HD with built in self encryption capability. The caveat is that your bios must support writing a hard drive user password.
They also make external drive enclosures with hardware encryption fairly inexpensively which can be useful for making secure backups. If the drive is stolen, then nothing but random data would be on the drive. You would need the enclosure and password to decrypt the drive.
|
Gene&Ginny
North Kingstown, RI
Senior Member
Joined: 03/16/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
You could put sensitive stuff on a USB flash drive. For a large amount of stuff a small USB disk drive. I have a Western Digital Passport 120 gig drive that is a little smaller than a checkbook. Store the drive away fom the laptop and all they get is the programs but not the data. No passwords to remember.
Gene and DW Ginny
2008 Toyota 4Runner 4.7L V8 w/factory towing option
2002 Sunline Solaris Lite T2363
Reese Dual Cam Straight Line HP Sway Control
Proud member of the Sunline Club
|
cleo43
Montreal
Senior Member
Joined: 08/08/2006
View Profile
Offline
|
Use an off-line, OLD, heavy desktop and an external hard drive (to make it less palatable to thieves) - keep the hard drive in your safe when not in use. Also using Linux (Ubuntu, Mint ...) reduces much chance that your PC being hacked (after removing all remote access programs that are installed by default). Amateur hackers are often Windows oriented only.
It's not without reason that Madoff used an AS/400. Windows is the weakest among computer OS'es, concerning security.
|
LittleBill
Scranton, PA USA
Senior Member
Joined: 08/29/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
cleo43 wrote:
Windows is the weakest among computer OS'es, concerning security.
Solely due to being the most popular..nothing more nothing less
|
ReadyToGo
Minnesota
Senior Member
Joined: 11/17/2002
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club Member
Offline
|
Cleo43: not even close to the truth. They fix security issues faster than any other company on the Net. Also their MSE and Firewall are the easiest to run and do a great job of protection. And LittleBill hit it exactly.
|
|
|
