Data Security Part Two: Encrypt your data

If you haven’t checked out part one yet (how to securely erase your data), then go for it now. Today I’ll show you how to encrypt your existing files. And relax — it’s easy.

Why Windows won’t protect you
There’s a big misconception out there that goes something like this: “When I turn on my computer I have to enter a username and password to log into Windows, so my data is secure.”

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Your data is so not secure. Anyone can pop the hard drive out of your laptop or desktop and examine it to their hearts content on another computer somewhere. What you need to do is encrypt your files. Now, there are many ways to do this, but I’m going to show you a quick and easy, yet quite powerful, one.

Go get TrueCrypt
Click on over to our good friends at PC World and download TrueCrypt. This is free software. Go ahead and install TrueCrypt, then run it once you’re done. The program has a great wizard interface that walks you through the process of encrypting your data, but be sure to pay attention so you know what’s going on.

Here’s how TrueCrypt works: It creates a sort of container, or basket, that you put your files into. This basket is an actual file that you can Email to someone, burn to CD, move to a USB drive — whatever. To get at the contents of the file you need to open TrueCrypt, select the container file you created with the wizard interface, and “Mount” the file (containers show up as disk drives when you go to “My Computer” in Windows), at which point you enter your password.

When you’ve finished working with your files, go back to TrueCrypt and tell it to “Dismount” the drive. Boof — your files are once again safe.

The box within a box
TrueCrypt has another really neat feature — it allows you to create a secret, hidden box within the original secure container. It is created during initial setup through the Wizard interface, and you need to have created a second password specifically for it. You access it by mounting your container, as usual, but typing in this SECOND password.

This is great for when someone is coercing or forcing you to open up your secure container. Just type in the password for the normal encrypted container — the people giving you grief will be none the wiser that there is a second, hidden set of files!