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Softonic Rating:
Good710
License:
Free
Added:
February 22, 2006
Updated:
July 7, 2008
Publisher:
Website
File size:
3.0 MB
Downloads:
252
Nick Mead

“Code and decode data in real time”

by Nick Mead

If you're on the move regularly or your hard drive is accessible by third parties, it's always vulnerable to attack.

One way to prevent possible compromises of your security is by encrypting data. TrueCrypt aims to do this by allowing you to encrypt data "on-the-fly". This means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted immediately before they are loaded or saved without any input required from you. Nothing can be encrypted or decrypted without using the correct password or encryption keys. This encryption extends to entire file systems such as file names, folder names, file contents, free disk space etc. The good thing about this particular program is that it doesn't get in the way of you dragging and dropping files. Some encryption programmes that work on-the-fly prevent you from doing so easily or add a delay to the transfer but that's not the case with TrueCrypt. The other good thing is that TrueCrypt never saves any decrypted data to a disk – it only stores them temporarily in your RAM which is far more secure because when you restart Windows or turn off your computer, the volume will be dismounted and files stored in it will be inaccessible and still encrypted. The interface is a bit bland but at least it's simple enough to follow and not full of complicated encryption jargon.

A very solid encryption tool although the fact that it's open source means that it's vulnerable to modification which could compromise encryptions.

Languages:

English

Notes:

To prevent a recently discovered attack, which affects plausible deniability, we strongly recommend that you move data from your TrueCrypt volume to a new volume created by this version. Description of the attack: If a series of certain plaintext blocks is written to a mounted volume (i.e., if it is correctly encrypted), it is, with a very high probability, possible to distinguish the volume from random data. This affects volumes created by all versions of TrueCrypt prior to 4.2, except volumes encrypted with AES-Blowfish or AES-Blowfish-Serpent.

Recent changes in TrueCrypt:

  • Parallelized encryption/decryption on multi-core processors (or multi-processor systems). Increase in encryption/decryption speed is directly proportional to the number of cores and/or processors.
  • Ability to create and run an encrypted hidden operating system whose existence is impossible to prove (provided that certain guidelines are followed). For more information, see the section Hidden Operating System.
  • On Windows Vista and Windows 2008, it is now possible to encrypt an entire system drive even if it contains extended/logical partitions. (Note that this is not supported on Windows XP.)
  • New volume format that increases reliability, performance and expandability
  • Parallelized header key derivation on multi-core processors (one algorithm per core/thread). As a result, mounting is several times faster on multi-core processors.

OS requirements for TrueCrypt:

  • OS: Win2000/XP/2003/Vista
Pros
  • Encrypts files on the fly
  • Saves encryptions in RAM
Cons
  • Open source to could easily be vulnerable to decryption attempts
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