Do I really need to encrypt some partitions in my hard drive, given my work? If yes, what would be the performance hit?

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The Tiger

The Tiger

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Aug 30, 2013
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I'm a writer and photographer. One of my HDD partitions is filled with intellectual properties. Also I'm a women's rights activist. So I have many secret pictures and information, which are very sensitive and perilous IF stolen or leaked out.

That's why I was asking, do I need to encrypt these two partitions of my drive? I run Comodo IS Pro with Firewall.

The main concern is this: Recently, my HDD failed. (I had backups). Somehow, with much difficulty, I could wipe out the HDD, heaving a sigh of relief, before sending it for RMA. Now I remain scared if I can't wipe out the HDD in the event of a future failure, I'd risk my sensitive data in the hands of Seagate.

So, what do you suggest? Should I encrypt my drive's two partitions with BitLocker? What performance hit would I have to tolerate? My laptop's processor is Core i7 3610QM and has 8GB of RAM.

Thank you.
 
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spawnkiller
i suggest that you use encryption but bitlocker is one of the less effective one... I suggest to use Trucrypt and use the triple layer (AES-Twofish-Serpent) with a two factors authentification at least, maybe more if you can (i have 4 right now)

Also, after encryption, the data that was here before is still present on the disk (but newer will not be) so you need to wipe the deallocated space (i use the 35pass guttman method, it's really long but you need to do it to be safe at least right after encryption)

for performance hit, using a 3770k and 16gb of 2133mhz ram (4.83ghz and 2240mhz cl10 ram) = 0 performance drop (10mb/s on an ssd and 2mbit/s on 2 HDDs in raid 1) so nothing that you need to bother about...

You can't wipe the...
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cin19

cin19

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Mar 14, 2011
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I think you should not store the sensitive data on the laptop HDD, even you encrypt the HDD, if someone want to get it, they can get those data, from time to time there are some news for anonymous hackers. You should put those into the USB drive like that. In the real world nothings is encryption.

You can't do anything if the laptop HDD failed, and if you send it back to Seagate and they will not read those but if you ask to recovery the data, they will and you can read this article "Disaster Strikes: How Is Data Recovered From A Dead Hard Drive?" http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/642-data-recovery-hard-drive-failure.html
 
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spawnkiller

spawnkiller

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Jan 23, 2013
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i suggest that you use encryption but bitlocker is one of the less effective one... I suggest to use Trucrypt and use the triple layer (AES-Twofish-Serpent) with a two factors authentification at least, maybe more if you can (i have 4 right now)

Also, after encryption, the data that was here before is still present on the disk (but newer will not be) so you need to wipe the deallocated space (i use the 35pass guttman method, it's really long but you need to do it to be safe at least right after encryption)

for performance hit, using a 3770k and 16gb of 2133mhz ram (4.83ghz and 2240mhz cl10 ram) = 0 performance drop (10mb/s on an ssd and 2mbit/s on 2 HDDs in raid 1) so nothing that you need to bother about...

You can't wipe the disk if the disk isn't working so i wouldn't return for the warranty at seagate, they can do some work and find all so, if you fear that this will compromise your safety then DON'T DO IT !!! 100$ for a HDD vs your life isn't hard to choose :p
 
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The Tiger

The Tiger

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Aug 30, 2013
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Thank you very much, everyone, for taking your time out, sharing your knowledge and helping me through your helpful replies.

Yeah, Spawn, I guess you're right in saying I should not ever return the HDD if I can't wipe it.

One more thing I'd like to ask, if someone wants, can they really crack the BitLocker encryption I have?

 
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spawnkiller

spawnkiller

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Yeah, Bitlocker have a backdoor include within itself so it's really easy to crack for someone that knows that backdoor (and it's relativly easy to find how if it's not the case)

I wouldn't return the HDD if you can't wipe it totally and have sensible data on it...
 
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The Tiger

The Tiger

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Yup, you're totally right. Thanks a lot, you and everyone else, for your time and help.
 
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