Comments on: The Traveler’s Guide To Locking Down Your Laptop: Part 2 – Protecting Your Data https://foxnomad.com/2010/04/08/the-traveler%e2%80%99s-guide-to-locking-down-your-laptop-part-2-%e2%80%93-protecting-your-data/ tech and tips to help you travel smarter Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:16:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Anil Polat https://foxnomad.com/2010/04/08/the-traveler%e2%80%99s-guide-to-locking-down-your-laptop-part-2-%e2%80%93-protecting-your-data/#comment-85398 Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:55:58 +0000 http://www.foxnomad.com/?p=7269#comment-85398 In reply to Sherry Ott.

When talking about full-disk encryption (where the entire hard drive is encrypted), only Windows really has it with BitLocker.

But in general with encryption you lose space (encrypted files are bigger), it slows down the disk ever so much, and if you forget your password or lose the key your data is gone. It would be difficult to encrypt hard drives from the factory using the operating system – then you’d either have to ship each one with a separate key and hope nobody loses it *heh* or ship them with a generic key that will get cracked in no time. Less liability and more secure to have individuals do the security side.

]]> By: Sherry Ott https://foxnomad.com/2010/04/08/the-traveler%e2%80%99s-guide-to-locking-down-your-laptop-part-2-%e2%80%93-protecting-your-data/#comment-85395 Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:27:16 +0000 http://www.foxnomad.com/?p=7269#comment-85395 Thanks for this info – however I have a question about hard drive encryption. If these programs come with the operating systems and it’s are a really good idea to enable them – then why isn’t this a default? Why do we need to go turn them on? What is the downside to encrypting your hard drive – are there any? Is it slower, or more passwords to remember? I figure that with most things there are advantages and disadvantages – so just wondering what they are.
Thanks!

]]> By: Anil Polat https://foxnomad.com/2010/04/08/the-traveler%e2%80%99s-guide-to-locking-down-your-laptop-part-2-%e2%80%93-protecting-your-data/#comment-85363 Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:02:46 +0000 http://www.foxnomad.com/?p=7269#comment-85363 In reply to Barbara Weibel.

Keychain is a good password manager – it encrypts the passwords on disk (but not the other information it stores from what I recall) and plays nicely with the Mac OS. The weakest point of the architecture is what applications you give access to your Keychain.

]]> By: Barbara Weibel https://foxnomad.com/2010/04/08/the-traveler%e2%80%99s-guide-to-locking-down-your-laptop-part-2-%e2%80%93-protecting-your-data/#comment-85349 Mon, 12 Apr 2010 07:34:56 +0000 http://www.foxnomad.com/?p=7269#comment-85349 Anil: I am presently using the built-in Keychain on my Mac for passwords. I have set it for a master password, and then have added a further level of security by not actually writing the passwords in each of the keychain items. Instead, I use a code. I have three different passwords, one for high security sites like banking, and two others for other, less important logins. I have a word that represents each password, say for instance, red, white, and blue (not the real words), and this is what I put in the password field. So even if someone gets my unlock password, they wouldn’t have access to any of my “real” passwords. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on using Keychain.

]]> By: Anil Polat https://foxnomad.com/2010/04/08/the-traveler%e2%80%99s-guide-to-locking-down-your-laptop-part-2-%e2%80%93-protecting-your-data/#comment-85266 Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:49:16 +0000 http://www.foxnomad.com/?p=7269#comment-85266 In reply to Trisha Miller.

Good advice although since the effort to encrypt is low and the security trade off high, I think most people should encrypt. Agree with you on conferences, people share all kinds of stuff, not to mention at hotspots, cafes, and hostels.

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