Should I encrypt all of my storage devices?

JockVSJock

So I'm a road warrior thanks to the US Military, and can say I've lived in four locations this year (Missouri, Georgia, Minnesota and now South Korea).

I probably should have asked this earlier, however I was wondering if anyone else travels and if so, do they encrypt all of their storage devices with saying something like True Crypt?

The reason I ask is that in case a storage device is lost or stolen, it would be harder for them to access.

I know that one of the downsides is that it slows performance of disk, and that would be not so good for the 1 TB portable storage device that I have.

Any ideas on this?

thanks

Everyone

I just kept it with me every time I had to move. I never let the movers take it, always packed it up myself and kept it locked up in my vehicle, along with anything else I felt was important enough to do that with. I let the movers handle the rest of the household goods though.

On overseas deployments, I never took more than a laptop with me. Everything else stayed locked up in my dorm room when I was single, or at my house when I was married.

Really you should segregate your data. Keep anything sensitive on encrypted storage, and don't worry about encrypting the rest. Documents don't take up a lot of room. Do you really need to encrypt your music or movie files? Does that game you like to play need to be encrypted? Nope.

ptilsen

Everyone wrote: »

Really you should segregate your data. Keep anything sensitive on encrypted storage, and don't worry about encrypting the rest. Documents don't take up a lot of room. Do you really need to encrypt your music or movie files? Does that game you like to play need to be encrypted? Nope.

I agree with this, with some exceptions. If the data on your laptop is extremely sensitive, I would do full disk encryption. If someone has un-monitored physical access to your laptop and it is not encrypted, they could install a keylogger or something of that nature and intercept passwords as you type them in, thereby gaining access to your encrypted files. (Similar methods are possible whether you use key files, certificates, biometrics, etc.)

But if you're not dealing with military intelligence, segregated encryption of your more sensitive data using TrueCrypt should be fine.

veritas_libertas

If I was shipping or sending my device with someone else I would encrypt it. Otherwise, I would simply keep the drives with me during my move. I do keep the flash drive that is on my keyring encrypted.

demonfurbie

if you have windows 7 ultimate you could use bitlocker and bitlocker togo while moving and once moved you can remove it

http://www.professormesser.com/microsoft-70-680/bitlocker-and-bitlocker-to-go/