GuardianEdge Hard Disk Encryption

Has anyone here worked with this product? If so, what do you think of it?

I need to encrypt all of my users laptops and since this was chosen as the organization's standard by the higher ups it's what I've got to use. I've been testing this for about a week and I've been pleasantly surprised, so far it seems like a pretty easy to use piece of software, but I'm not one to encrypt semi-critical data without through testing and understanding of the software. Hopefully someone here has used it and can give my their opinion.

The biggest complaint I have so far is the rather lacking documentation, it says what to do but not why. I want to know exactly what the software is doing and why. Maybe the information is out there somewhere, but since it was distributed through a couple levels in my organization I don't have direct access to the vendor.

Thanks in advance!

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Comments

dynamik

We're just using TrueCrypt.

KGhaleon

We use it. It does the job and I haven't had any problems with it aside from locking myself out of systems. ;_;

GAngel

kalebksp wrote: »

Has anyone here worked with this product? If so, what do you think of it?

I need to encrypt all of my users laptops and since this was chosen as the organization's standard by the higher ups it's what I've got to use. I've been testing this for about a week and I've been pleasantly surprised, so far it seems like a pretty easy to use piece of software, but I'm not one to encrypt semi-critical data without through testing and understanding of the software. Hopefully someone here has used it and can give my their opinion.

The biggest complaint I have so far is the rather lacking documentation, it says what to do but not why. I want to know exactly what the software is doing and why. Maybe the information is out there somewhere, but since it was distributed through a couple levels in my organization I don't have direct access to the vendor.

Thanks in advance!

It uses FIPS 140-2 certified and AES 128 bit/256 bit encryption. Government standard not successfully cracked completely only in very specific circumstances.

I believe bitlocker uses the same system so you may find more info from researching that.

RTmarc

GAngel wrote: »

It uses FIPS 140-2 certified and AES 128 bit/256 bit encryption. Government standard not successfully cracked completely only in very specific circumstances.

I believe bitlocker uses the same system so you may find more info from researching that.

I think you are right. Seems like I remember reading something a little over a year ago that BitLocker and GuardianEdge had been "cracked" by supercooling the removed memory from a machine. Of course it was one of those situations where it poses very little risk due to what it took to complete the test.

cisco_trooper

We're also using TrueCrypt. The ONLY downfall I find with TrueCrypt is the lack of LDAP integration. I'm not sure if Guardian Edge provides LDAP integration or not, but TrueCrypt is free and it is easy to use.

kalebksp

Thanks for the responses!

I use TrueCrypt for my personal computers, but it wouldn't be appropriate in my work environment. GuardianEdge has AD integration, which is an important feature for us.

RTmarc, sounds like you're referring to the cold boot attack, or a variation of it.

I'm not so much concerned about how secure it is. I figure that it's fairly popular software among large companies, so it's probably decently secure, and I really don't have a choice whether I use it or not. What I am concerned with is properly understanding it's architecture so that I don't end up losing data by encrypting the drives. Although that seems like it would be pretty difficult to do unless I were to wipe out the management server and forget the client administrator password.

The higher ups did put on training for all our IT departments, but no one in mine was able to make it, so I've been learning the software from the installation and administration manuals. Though I've never seen an installation or administration manual point out a product's flaws, so I partly wanted to see if anyone had real world experience with the product and what issues, if any, they had with it.

KGhaleon, how do you lock yourself out of it?

Thanks again!

KGhaleon

Well, I've ran into problems before where I took a computer off the domain but couldn't readd it or login locally since I forgot the local admin password.

I couldn't crack the admin password since the drive was encrypted. It's happened once or twice before...annoyed the hell out of me. It does a good job keeping intruders out. ;(