MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Still looking for the ultimate secure setup

Alexander Turcic · 04-05-2004, 03:08 PM

Interesting thread!
Trust me, you are not alone on your search for the ideal encryption tool. Let me try to follow your discussion...

--Software encryption--
Beside DriveCrypt Plus, two other full-harddisk encryption tools for MS Windows system are

- Utimaco's SafeGuard Easy
- Control Break's Safeboot Solo (Website currently down).

I wouldn't go for DriveCrypt or DriveCrypt Plus, because of the company who is behind it (SecurStar). In another thread here I wrote about SecurStar's dealing with open-source products like TrueCrypt.

Honestly, if you are looking for the ideal encryption tool, your tool must be open-source!

--Hardware encryption--
I don't know much about hardware encryption. One thing for sure: don't go for any 40/64bit DES products. Go for at least 128bit, and if possible not with DES, because its depreciated. Instead, the hardware should support either 3DES (very slow) or AES. The trouble I have is if I want to upgrade my hardware, let's say to SATA hard disks, and the encryption controller doesn't support that...
Other hardware solutions:
- Abit SecureIDE
- Via C3 PadLock and here.

-- (wireless) Networking --
This is actually my favorite solution as of right now. I have a FreeBSD machine (which becomes more and more my Windows replacement), which has geom-gbde installed. I think I wrote about it somewhere else here. It is open-source harddisk encryption with great performance and some nifty features (such as sector remapping). Then, you go one step further and encrypt your network traffic with a hardware encryption (see here - hardware based on this chip is here and here ). This way you can design the strongest virtual private network security without sacrificing performance or spending big bucks on the wrong solution (say bye to SecurStar).

Btw, a "AMD T-bird 900Mhz PC with 768MB PC133" should be more than sufficient if you run any *BSD operation system.

04-05-2004, 03:08 PM	#2
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Interesting thread! Trust me, you are not alone on your search for the ideal encryption tool. Let me try to follow your discussion... --Software encryption-- Beside DriveCrypt Plus, two other full-harddisk encryption tools for MS Windows system are - Utimaco's SafeGuard Easy - Control Break's Safeboot Solo (Website currently down). I wouldn't go for DriveCrypt or DriveCrypt Plus, because of the company who is behind it (SecurStar). In another thread here I wrote about SecurStar's dealing with open-source products like TrueCrypt. Honestly, if you are looking for the ideal encryption tool, your tool must be open-source! --Hardware encryption-- I don't know much about hardware encryption. One thing for sure: don't go for any 40/64bit DES products. Go for at least 128bit, and if possible not with DES, because its depreciated. Instead, the hardware should support either 3DES (very slow) or AES. The trouble I have is if I want to upgrade my hardware, let's say to SATA hard disks, and the encryption controller doesn't support that... Other hardware solutions: - Abit SecureIDE - Via C3 PadLock and here. -- (wireless) Networking -- This is actually my favorite solution as of right now. I have a FreeBSD machine (which becomes more and more my Windows replacement), which has geom-gbde installed. I think I wrote about it somewhere else here. It is open-source harddisk encryption with great performance and some nifty features (such as sector remapping). Then, you go one step further and encrypt your network traffic with a hardware encryption (see here - hardware based on this chip is here and here ). This way you can design the strongest virtual private network security without sacrificing performance or spending big bucks on the wrong solution (say bye to SecurStar). Btw, a "AMD T-bird 900Mhz PC with 768MB PC133" should be more than sufficient if you run any *BSD operation system.