Our Services

• Fast and Secure Online Backups
• Never Get A Virus
• Notebook (Anti-Theft) Tracking
• Non-destructive Malware Removal
• Hard Disk Encryption
• Ethical Hacking
• Data Recovery
•     Fill Incident Form
• Virtualization
• Training & Consultancy
• Computer Forensics
• Computer Imaging
• Guarantee Your Privacy
• Other Information Technology Services
• Report Computer Theft

Navigation

• Contact Us
• Search
• Privacy Statement
• Home

Of Interest

• In Action... Videos
• Security News
• Staff Articles
• Alan C. Bonnici

Email: info@onNeutral.com

by Alan C. Bonnici

The amount of information we carry on our person is tremendous. A USB flash drive capable of storing Gigabytes of information measures a few centimetres and weights less than 10g. Hybrid devices such as MP3 and video players allow us to use some of the multimedia storage space as a repository for our personal files. As the world of mobile phones and PDA’s dissolve into one another, one can use these multifunction units to make calls, take photos and video footage, write emails, work on office productivity tools, and do numerous actions that create or manipulate personal information. Those who need a fully autonomous tool with a proper keyboard and the same computational power of a desktop computer live from their notebooks. And the dawning future indicates that we will be keeping more and more personal information about ourselves.

All the objects mentioned about have one common fault; they are easy to loose or steal. In such a scenario, it does not require that someone breaks into your house to walk away with your data. Leave your mobile phone unattended for a few seconds and it may be gone forever. Weight and physical dimensions, the two factors that make these devices attractive to us, also make them easy targets to those who get their hands on them. Besides stealing one must add loosing to the equation since both have similar consequences.

When someone steals (or you loose) your device you suffer three types of outcomes:

• the cost to replace the stolen device;
• the cost to recreate the data;
• the cost of the information stolen.

The cost to replace the stolen device is normally the littlest of the three. Making it a habit to never loose site of your device (just as your would your car keys) helps considerably in ensuring that you get to use your device for a long time.

The cost to recreate the data can be considerable. What would happen if lose all your debtors? Your spreadsheets, word processing documents and presentations wiped out of existence. All contacts, appointments and email communications are gone and you will have to rely on memory to remain operational. Today we live in an era in which we store critical information as photographs and audio tracks and once these are gone so has that critical information. A proper and efficient backup strategy which is automatic and does not need any intervention on your part can address this problem and will prevent such an event from turning into a problem.

The losses described above will happen not only if your device is stolen or lost, but also if it breaks down. Wear and tear is one reason why things stop functioning, but accidental damage such as drops, water, fire and smoke also account for a larger percentage of replaced items.

When your device is stolen, someone else is in possession of your device together with its contents. The item would change hands if it is traded and each possessor would get to comb through your data. How much is your information worth? How much does it cost you if someone got to know about the people you transact with? What would be your loss if someone figures out your business process, your profit margins and your future leads? What about financial information such as bank accounts and credit card numbers? Would any of the data stored on your device make you a target to extortion?

On-the-fly encryption can address this problem. On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password or correct encryption keys. While single file encryption has its use such as when sending individual files attached to an email, the benefits of on-the-fly encryption over single file encryption are the following:

• One password is necessary to open the entire volume (although single file encryption may still be applied to individual files stored within the volume);
• Certain file types such as pictures cannot be natively password protected without the use of a third party product;
• Information about the files themselves such as filenames, file modification dates and directory information are not visible unless the volume has been successfully opened.

Some products cater for hidden volumes. The principle is that the hidden volume is created within another volume (known as the outer volume). Each volume would have its own password and depending on the password given the respective volume would become visible.  This option is there to address a situation in which you may be forced to hand over the password. Within the outer volume you should place a few sensitive-looking files that you actually do not want to hide. Files that really are sensitive will be stored on the hidden volume.

Be careful when you use encryption software that makes generic claims like “strong encryption”, “unbreakable encryption”, “secure encryption” or “proprietary encryption”. Anyone can simply convert the letters of the alphabet to numbers (where a=1, b=2, etc) and still claim it is strong encryption. In general, the encryption algorithms should be clearly identified. AES (Rijndael), Serpent, MARS, RC6 and Twofish are five of the well known and trust worthy algorithms you can use to encrypt your data. These had been submitted to the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States (NIST) when it ran a competition to select the next encryption standard to be used by the US government. Rijndael was selected with the other 4 being chosen as runner ups.

Using on-the-fly encryption takes practically no effort to use, since the volume is visible as a normal drive with its own drive letter and is accessible as any other drive. Using this method ensures that if your device gets lost or stolen your data is gone, but at least your privacy is safeguarded. Besides a considerable number of these tools are available as freeware.

Contact Info

Author: Alan C. Bonnici
Email: chribonn@gmail.com
URL: http://www.AlanBonnici.com

Based on a work at http://www.AlanBonnici.com/articles.asp.