Truecrypt is an open source application which can be handy for anyone who is craving for privacy. Due to the outburst of bits, keeping confidential data under cover is becoming a tedious task; you either risk losing it to someone sniffing it or to the malicious programs. Data is insecure if we leave it as it is in any medium, which is a potentially dangerous situation. This calls for the need of programs which are capable of protecting our privacy. Truecrypt is one of such, which stands out from the rest. Unlike some newbie programs, which either uses hidden folders for storing confidential data or use a particular file to store data sequentially, which could be easily spoofed.
It allows you to create a new encrypted volume in any file and allows it to be mounted as a Disk Drive. It uses automatic on the fly encryption technology so as to promise uncompromising data security for the data. It is a must have tool for the paranoids, so as to ensure that none else can peep in. The encryption techniques used are Twofish, AES-256, and serpent. Here, the data is stored in encrypted form in the physical memory as well, so that spoofing it is nearly impossible. It is also capable of creating hidden encrypted volumes inside another volume, so that if you are forced to disclose the password of the outer volume, the inner data lies still hidden. Moreover, Truecrypt is also capable of encrypting an entire partition or portable devices like USB Drives. It is also capable of encrypting the partition in which OS is installed (pre-boot authentication is required). You can install Truecrypt on a portable drive and it becomes a simple point and click operation to mount the encrypted volume (provided that you give in the password or “keyfile”). Instead of using a nearly-perfect password, we also have a choice to select any file to be chosen as “keyfile” (mp3, jpeg image, etc), which will be used for authentication (provided that you don’t change the first 1024bytes of the file, after you chose it as your “keyfile”). In short, this tool is a must-have if you want to secure your data from the prying eyes.
The GUI is simple and intuitive. It doesn’t require a nerd to create an encrypted volume. It also allows running the benchmarks using different encryption algorithms. The more secure algorithm you chose, the safer your data, but the runtime overhead will be affected slightly.
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