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LOMA : Tech
Talk : Articles
January
Focus: Disk Encryption
By David Simms
Where would you go to find
the most impenetrable security on the planet? Fort Knox? Air Force One?
Maybe National Security Headquarters? Well, if you’re a PGP owner, one
of the most impenetrable areas on the planet might well be a file on your
own computer.
PGP stands for “ pretty
good privacy.”(Though it could just as easily stand for “phenomenally
good privacy.”) It is software that you install on your computer that
allows you to secure data through encryption.When you buy PGP Corporate
Desktop you actually get four programs in one PGP-Mail, PGPvpn, PGP-Fire,
and PGP-disk. However, those four programs are also available individually
if you’re a PC user. Unfortunately, they are not available individually
for the Macintosh, and Mac users will have to buy the bundled package,
which at the time of this writing costs $179.00.
(In case you’ve heard of
PGP before and thought that it was free, it still is - sort of. It was
originally created by Phil Zimmerman MIT in 1991 and distributed as
freeware. The freeware version is still available, but PGP is all grown up
and is now distributed in a commercial version by Network Associates at www.nai.com.)
PGP mail works the same way
as the digital signatures work. PGP-Fire is essentially a personal
firewall similar to those found on network servers. PGPvpn is used to
allow the secure transfer of data across virtual private networks.
But the focus of this
article is on PGP disk. At $52.00, PGP-Disk allows a user to create a
directory on his or her computer that automatically encrypts anything
stored inside it. When an authorized user opens any file from inside that
disk, the file is automatically decrypted. Only authorized users will have
permission to open files stored inside a secure directory. I’m sure some
of you are thinking of the many times and places you’ve needed to secure
entire folders containing private information but didn’t know how.
Here’s how to do it:
I have come to accept that
a multitude of users are a part of 21st century life, and have learned
that, as a security measure; one should never use the same user name and
password for everything that requires a log-in. As Web Editor for the DC
Bar, I need to store, at last count, 32 sets of user names and passwords,
and indeed I have a database on my laptop that does just that. This is
sensitive data, and though the odds of a highly skilled hacker reading the
contents of my hard drive unbeknownst to me while I’m connected to the
Internet is extremely unlikely, playing the odds is hardly sound data
security. In the steps for PGP, the software is easy to install. You can
readily download PGP and many other products from Network Associates’
website, but consider the convenience of buying the software on disk.
When it comes to software, I always
prefer to buy the boxed version so that I’ll have a CD-ROM handy should
I ever need to install it. That said, simply insert the CD into your
computer’s CD-ROM tray and follow the on-screen setup instructions that
appear. Once installation is complete, you’ll need to reboot your
computer before you can actually begin using the product. Do so; you’ll
find a short cut to it in the program folder under the start menu.
PGP-Disk is so user friendly; you
hardly need a user’s guide. Launch the program and a wizard steps you
through a process of creating a secure volume. You see this volume in the
form of a separate drive, and anything you store in that volume is
encrypted automatically. In other words, in addition to your usual C
drive, your floppy disk drive, which is most likely called the A drive,
and any other drives you may have historically have had, you’ll now have
what appears to be a new drive created during the setup of you PGP disk
volume. On my computer it’s called the E-drive, though yours may have a
different name. The contents of this secure volume (or drive, if you wish
- the term drive is a bit misnomer) are only visible once it has been “mounted.”
You mount a volume by clicking on the PGP tray icon visible in the
left-hand corner of your monitor and selecting PGPdisk - mount disk.
Select the volume you wish to mount, enter the pass phrase assigned to
that volume during the setup process (it is case sensitive), and the drive
with all its contents becomes available to you. By default a drive will
un-mount after 15 minutes of inactivity and will no longer be visible
through Windows Explorer, but you may change that timeout period in the
PGP disk editor, also accessible through the PGP tray icon.
It’s too easy and too affordable
not to take advantage of ensuring the security of your data using PGP.
Visit www.nai.com or www.pgp.com
to learn more and purchase your own copy.
David Simms is the Washington DC
Bar Association Web Editor. The article appeared in the December 2001
issue of The Washington Lawyer and it is posted
with permission.
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