TrueCrypt – The True Encryption Software

Files system security is often a concern not only for people who own a portable notebook, but for those who store valuable data in their computer. When the computer is stolen or loss, the data exist in the computer is uncovered.

There are numbers of great encryption software around the net, many of them are free. I have personally tried TrueCrypt & found that this files encryption software comes with powerful features. Those who are concerned about protecting their data should definitely give it a try.

TrueCrypt is a free real-time on-the-fly files encryption software. This means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted right from the disk or any portable storage device. Unlike the other encryption software which encrypts only on individual files, TrueCrypt can store many files in an encrypted file or even in entire storage device. This is useful when you want to prevent others from exploring your files.

Files are encrypted in a TrueCrypt volume, you can choose whether the volume to be resided in a volume file which acts just like any normal file or in a whole partition or drive. Files can be copied to and from a mounted TrueCrypt volume just like they are copied to or from any normal disk, permitting you to open, copy, modify or delete them easily. TrueCrypt does not store any decrypted file back on to the disk during the decryption process; files are actually decrypted in memory while they are being read. When you turn off your computer, the volume will be dismounted and files stored in memory will be inaccessible.

If you are concern about the speed of reading the encrypted files on-the-fly, TrueCrypt uses so-called pipelining technology to work this out. Playing an encrypted mpeg2 file on my Pentium 2GHz, 2GB RAM computer has produced excellence result & has no problem at all.

The installation package comes with extensive help manual and the encryption & decryption wizard helps user to understand the process. TrueCrypt is not for careless users, be sure read the manual & understand what you’re doing. My advice is to test this software out on a few sample files before do anything risky to your important data.

Website: http://www.truecrypt.org