Last year, Intel introduced a new system platform called Atom^TM, which consumes less power compared to standard CPUs and is highly integrated. A new type of PC developed around this platform: the netbook. Although the Atom offers very little CPU power, certain advantages of the netbooks make them attractive to mobile home and business users alike: compact size, long-lasting battery charge, and low price.

Because netbooks are designed to be taken with you everywhere, their small size makes it easier for you to forget them and for criminals to steal. A lost netbook containing sensitive data could  be a real threat, particularly to enterprises whose very survival can depend on the security of their data.

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In my last article I discussed the BitLocker to Go features from a user’s perspective. Today I will take a closer look at the features that are of interest from a system administrator’s point of view.

I think it is important to have just one USB stick encryption solution in a corporate environment because it simplifies the work for help desk personnel. If an end user calls because he or she is unable to access the data on an encrypted memory stick, and you don’t even know what encryption software has been used, things can get difficult.

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BitLocker to Go is a new feature in Windows 7 that allows you to encrypt data on removable drives such as USB sticks. I believe that BitLocker to Go will be more popular than BitLocker for fixed-drive encryption, which I reviewed in my last article. Portable drives get lost much easier simply because they are smaller than laptops. Because they often contain important business data, unencrypted memory sticks pose a considerable security risk for any organization.

Of course, flash drive encryption isn’t anything new. Many portable storage devices come with their own encryption software and there are also free tools such as TrueCrypt that support USB stick encryption. However, in corporate environments, BitLocker to Go has some important advantages over these free solutions. In this article, I will discuss BitLocker to Go from the end user’s perspective. In my next post, I will cover the management features.

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BitLocker was introduced with Windows Vista and, as far as I know, it was not very popular. This might be because it is available only for Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Enterprise. But the main reason probably is that it is complicated to set up. I compared BitLocker to TrueCrypt a year ago and concluded that the Open Source tool is the better drive encryption solution. BitLocker in Windows 7, however, has significantly improved. In this article I discuss BitLocker’s system drive encryption, and in my next post I will review BitLocker-to-Go, the new encryption solution for removable storage devices.

BitLocker for Vista was too complicated to set up once the operating system is installed. Users had to shrink the system partition to make space for the BitLocker partition. Microsoft acknowledged that this was too difficult for end users, and too time consuming for administrators, and released the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool, which is part of the Ultimate Extras and is also available for Windows Vista Enterprise.

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• Microsoft Active Directory Migration Tool version 3.1 is availabe for download. http://snurl.com/2wv4d #
• Save Windows 3.11. Ed Bott is right. It is not bloated and fast too. http://snurl.com/2waft #
• Cloud computing: 12 reasons to love it or leave it http://snurl.com/2wake #
• Microsoft Announces Software-Plus-Services Adoption on the Rise With Assistance From Hosting Providers http://snurl.com/2wam5 #
• Sysinternals Process Monitor v1.35 is ready for download. It seems this update only brings App-V support. http://snurl.com/2vnqw #
• Windows XP SP3 is on Windows Update. Use Windows Service Pack Blocker Kit if you don’t want it on your machines. http://snurl.com/2vnsy #
• Is Diane Greene leaving the sinking ship or was she fired? Former Microsoft exec becomes new VMware CEO http://snurl.com/2vo0h #
• TrueCrypt 6.0a is out: faster, create encrypted hidden operating system, system drive encryption on Vista and more. http://snurl.com/2vo4s #

Josh from the InfiniteAdmin blog has an interesting post about solid state disk (SSD) encryption. He raised doubts that drive encryption tools such as TrueCrypt are secure enough if applied to SSDs. Like memory sticks SSDs are flash drives that usually work with NAND technology. Therefore, these concerns also apply to USB sticks.

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TrueCrypt 5 is available for some days now. Today, I found time to have a look at the new version of my favorite free encryption tool. The most noteworthy new feature certainly is its ability to encrypt system drives/partitions. Until now TrueCrypt was only an alternative to the Encrypting Files System (EFS) under Windows. Now, Truecrypt 5 also competes with Vista’s Bitlocker. In this post, I explore the pros and cons of both crypto tools.

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There has been a lot of media coverage about Bitlocker recently. It is supposed to be a solution for laptop users who want to encrypt their whole hard disks under Vista. You can’t encrypt your whole system partition with Truecrypt, but, in my view, is a much better solution if you want to secure confidential data.

Update: Please, also check out my review about TrueCrypt 5.

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How many passwords do you use? I’ve already given up counting mine. The list just keeps getting longer and longer, since i use a new password for every application or web site. (I hope you do this too.) Of course, it’s hard to remember all of them. So I save them in an encrypted file using Locknote. Infinite Password Generator offers another solution for this password problem. Instead of saving your passwords with a password manager, you generate the password each time you need it. Sounds strange, but it works.

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The major problem with any password-saving software is that passwords have to be loaded into the computer’s memory when you want to access them. This is a security risk. Passwordsaver (PWS) is a USB stick that solves this problem. It doesn’t show the passwords on the computer screen, but on its own tiny display.

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I just had a quick look at Folder Lock for Windows. It has more or less the same functionality as TrueCrypt which I discussed recently. It can make folders invisible and encrypt them as well. The advantage of Folder Lock is that you don’t have to reserve space on your hard disk for your encrypted folders. It can encrypt an existing folder. However, it is not free. It costs $30.

Update: Please, also check out my review about TrueCrypt 5.

TrueCrypt is a nifty free Open Source disk encryption tool. It encrypts a whole hard disk or partition and also can create virtual volumes. TrueCrypt uses encrypted container files which can be mounted like hard disks. Under Windows, you can assign a driver letter to such a virtual device. I tested version 4.1 for Windows.

Update: Please, also check out my review about TrueCrypt 5.

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How do you secure your passwords? As a sys admin you probably have countless accounts and I hope you don’t use the same password for all of them. I use by far too many passwords to remember them all. Writing them down is the only solution.

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