Originally published: 01-08-2009
Re-tweeted 03-02-2010
While scanning through some email newsletters, I came across this article . It looks like data security is still an afterthought to many organizations. I cannot stress enough that it is very important to secure your important data.
Even home users have Quicken, Money, or Quickbooks files. I have several clients that store a list of their passwords or other important information in Word documents on their computers. That’s fine – I keep my entire business stored on my primary laptop. The difference is that my entire hard drive is encrypted. If someone steals my laptop, that will not be able to access my data.
As I’ve said before, the irony is that the software to do all of this is free and open source. It is easy to use and once you encrypt the drive, your computer acts normally. The only time you notice anything is when you restart the computer. You must enter the password at reboot or the operating system simply won’t start.
One other point that I’m going to state again – Windows and Microsoft and Security don’t go in the same sentence. Just because you have a Windows login password doesn’t mean anything. That is trivial to bypass.
Also remember the following:
- Rule #1: You are only as good as your last successful backup – from which you can recover.
- www.truecrypt.com – open source and free