Power Disk Lock is a free software program that provides access to another option. It looks a lot like one of those game copy protection schemes as it can add different kinds of data protection solutions to the disk. Some of the options provided include preventing that data is copied or extracted from the disk, to create large fake files and folders to increase the size of the disk, to add other extra data like bad or weak sectors or to detect disk emulation programs like CloneCD.

The program basically allows a user to create a disk image that includes several methods of protecting data on the disk. The main question that users have to ask themselves is about the effectiveness of the program. There usually is a way around those copy and data protection schemes and it won’t be different in this case. It will probably keep the average user puzzled and locked out but it is likely that experienced users find a way to overcome the protection.

Power Disk Lock is available at the developer’s website. No information on program compatibility are given. It seems to require the Microsoft .net Framework.

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Androsa FileProtector is a software to password protect files in the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded as a portable version or one that has to be installed on the computer system. Three different encryption algorithms can be selected to password protect the files including 256 bit AES encryption.

Using the software program is actually pretty straightforward. Files can be added by the file browser. The files that have been added can then be password protected in the next step. The FileProtector will then encrypt the selected files and change their file extension to .afp. That file extension is automatically assigned to the software if it was installed on the computer system. Portable users will have to assign it or select the program from a list if they want to decrypt protected files.

The software can also delete files securely by overwriting them a number of times. This is an important step as the original files will be deleted after the encrypted copy has been created. Androsa FileProtector will display a password prompt if the file is executed on the computer system.

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True Crypt is an Open-Source software that can be used to create encrypted containers on devices. One of the major advantages of True Crypt is that it can be used as a portable application which means that you can copy the True Crypt files on the USB device so that the software does not have to be installed on the computer system where the data is needed.

There is however the requirement that the user who wants to mount the True Crypt volume to get access to the data needs to have administrative rights to run the software. That is however the only requirement.

Download the True Crypt software and run the setup. The setup displays options to install or extract the contents. Choose the extract option and pick the USB device as the target. All the files needed to encrypt and decrypt data will be extracted to the USB device.

Run truecrypt.exe afterwards. We need to create an encrypted container on the USB device that can store the data that we want to protect. It is limited to the free space on the USB device.

Click on Create Volume in the main interface and select the option to create an encrypted file container. Use the standard volume type in the next screen. Now browse to the USB device and pick a random filename that should be used as the container. You can use any name or extension, it does not really matter, for example test.avi, test.txt or bigrar.rar.

Pick an encryption algorithm (AES is fine and fast) and a Hash Algorithm (SJA-512) and define the space on the device that you want to assign. Select a password (20+ chars are recommended, the more the securer). The volume (in this case the space that you have selected) will be formatted. Move the mouse around to create random information and click the format button in the end.

This completes the creation of the encrypted container on the device. You need to mount it whenever you are going to use it. This is done by executing True Crypt from the USB device, picking a drive letter and selecting the file that contains the encrypted container.

The last step would be to click on mount to enter the password that is needed for the data decryption.

The data will be secure whenever the container is not mounted on the computer system. That’s one of the safest ways of transporting data from location A to B. Got any questions? Let me know.

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That would be bad luck and one thing that you should do before traveling to the United States, or any other country that is giving their border agents such rights is to protect your data; Or don’t visit the country which I prefer to do. The easiest way to protect your data is to leave it at home. If that is not possible because you do need your notebook for work you should prepare it so that the important data is protected and hidden.

I’m not accustomed to US laws and do not know if they can force you to reveal a password for an encrypted partition. But even if they cannot they probably can keep the notebook for a certain time to examine it and probably also question you for a while which would make the trip rather unpleasant.

Your best bet is to use encryption and another encrypted container on that encrypted drive. This way you can cooperate and enter the password: Here Office, take a look, I have no problem with it. The important data would still be encrypted and inaccessible and you would definitely not reveal that password. It’s impossible to tell for them anyway if there is another container unless you leave clues on the drive.

You need to make sure that all sensible data, like documents, emails, browser cache, passwords, cookies, pictures, videos, plane flying manuals, Atombombs for Dummies is stored on that second encrypted container.

Important data could be stored on a web server as well and downloaded while in the country. Just make sure it gets erased properly before leaving again. Any other ideas ? Let me know.

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It can go on by using recovery softwares to gather a list of softwares that once were installed on the computer but have been deleted by the user. In the end they have access to almost everything if you did not take the necessary measures to make sure that no one is able to access sensitive data.

Protecting your data is essential these days and even if some of you would call me paranoid I think everyone should do it. But, how would one do that ?

This is actually easier than you would have thought. My suggestion would be to use encryption to protect the data. This does mean however that the user has to enter a code to decrypt the data before he can use it which is far better than handing the data on a silver plate to everyone who has physical access to the computer.

Just follow the easy steps outlined below to secure your computer:

Download and install True Crypt on your system. True Crypt is able to encrypt hard drives and partitions with a secure key. I would suggest to use either an external hard drive or make space on a internal hard drive. It is far better to encrypt the complete hard drive.

Be aware that you need at least one unencrypted partition to be able to boot your operating system.

Encrypt the hard drive. I outlined the process in an earlier article called Create a secure data safe with True Crypt.
Now the important part. Move all your sensitive applications to that encrypted partition. I’m thinking of email clients, browsers, p2p applications, ftp programs, documents, pictures, videos and everything else that you do not want to share with anyone.
Make sure you change the data paths in the applications as well. It would not help if you use the email client from the encrypted hard drive but have the mailboxes on an unencrypted one. Move them all to the encrypted hard drive as well.
No one is able to access that data unless they provide the key to decrypt the hard drive. It is theoretically possible to break the algorithm or use brute force. The later would take ages if you use a key with more than 40+ chars.

Other measures that you should undertake could be to clean the caches on exit and using a software like Eraser to regularly delete information about former files on unused disk space.

Do you have additional ideas or methods that you use to protect your data ?

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Javascript will be temporarily disabled during login and the data is send right to the website that you want to login to. The Domain that you are currently on and that you want to login to are compared to ensure that you are indeed at the right website. A mismatch would result in a popup warning.

Some websites use Javascript for their login routine and Secure Login offers a list that contains site that are exceptions. Just add the website as an exception if you can’t login using the Secure Login extension.

Username and Password fields are colored orange and a sound can be played (optional) to let you know that you reached a page with a login form. The shortcust ALT + N would send the login details to the server without filling out the form. this is a very convenient way to login.

Secure Login offers additional protection against cross site scripting attacks by protecting from any Javascript code during logon. This is an optional setting that can be enabled in the extension’s options.

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