Full Disk Encryption Software Or Hard Drive?

CLC

CLC

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I know there are a couple threads on here about this but I was hoping someone can can refer a good product. Right now I have a client that is using trend micro for disk encryption and he says it's very very slow. So I'm looking for a better solution and truecrypt and bitlocker are not options.

I've also thought about replacing the drives with SED drives but I have no experience with them at all. I would love to get some feedback from someone who has found a good solution.
 
I am still looking, I started a thread on it last week. The Sophos solution was too over the top, and forced classes to use it which are very pricey.

Haven't had time to look at other selections yet, still on the search. Filled out "sales requests" at 2 other sites...never heard back from them...so they're off my list.
 
markverhyden said:
Safenet is a product that I saw used at DoD a few years ago. It is AD aware and supported smart cards as well.
Click to expand...

I've used these systems recently and they didn't seem to be any slower than other systems w/o the encryption. Can't speak to the administration side of things though.
 
Personally, I suggest using self encrypted drives when possible. The advantage to that is that the process to encrypt is instant vs a software solution that could take days to complete on larger drives.

In both case, remember that the point of encryption is that nobody can access your data without the right credentials. So, be sure to have your data backed up or you might find that an unfortunate need for data recovery is impossible.
 
markverhyden said:
Safenet is a product that I saw used at DoD a few years ago. It is AD aware and supported smart cards as well.
Click to expand...

SafeNet no longer sells FDE, I reached out and contacted them a week ago after you posted about them in my thread on this same subject.
He told me "2FA Inc in Texas now sells the product".
 
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I haven't worked much with data encryption to be honest. How does the backup work, I mean is it encrypted if it's backing up to a nas or does it decrypted during the transfer? Is there special software I need to back up software encrypted drives and the sed drives? I know some online backups do not support certain software.

Right now if I can swing it I'm going to pitch the SED drives because of performance, but I'm still open to suggestions.
 
CLC said:
I haven't worked much with data encryption to be honest. How does the backup work, I mean is it encrypted if it's backing up to a nas or does it decrypted during the transfer? Is there special software I need to back up software encrypted drives and the sed drives? I know some online backups do not support certain software.

Right now if I can swing it I'm going to pitch the SED drives because of performance, but I'm still open to suggestions.
Click to expand...

Backups are not encrypted as the system decrypts it on the fly to read/write it for FDE. If you are using file/folder encryption then they should be encrypted if you do not have them opened. They behave just like a container.

Of course if you need to have FDE then you also need to have the backups encrypted as well. If you do a whole disk image, such as with Clonezilla, an FYI, do not double encrypt by encrypting the FDE image. I remember reading some articles some time ago which said that could corrupt the image.

Personally I'm recommending encryption for most everyone these days. Whether they have a current legal requirement or not. I have a dental, which needs that of course, customer switching from Mac's to M$. Ordered the machines with Dell's DDPE.
 
CLC said:
Have any idea on the price for this?
Click to expand...

Added cost is $27.00/machine. Includes 3 years support. What I also noticed, been a while since I built anything on Dell, is that they now offer data recovery. 3 years for $52.50/machine. Cheap insurance at slightly over 4% of the total cost.
 
markverhyden said:
Added cost is $27.00/machine. Includes 3 years support. What I also noticed, been a while since I built anything on Dell, is that they now offer data recovery. 3 years for $52.50/machine. Cheap insurance at slightly over 4% of the total cost.
Click to expand...

That's not a bad price, I'm waiting to hear back from them now. Thanks for the input.
 
Digging this back up for some questions on a customer. I have a small office of 4 laptops - they sell health insurance and need to add encryption. I would much rather use a hardware solution, but there is a little sticker shock to get over for that.

I found two 2.5" drives on Newegg, This one for $599 (!) and This one for $239.

Does anyone have a preferred SED they are using and do these prices seem reasonable? The $600 one is 10K, but still, that seems like a lot and a hard-sell considering this is not an elective upgrade for them.

I see This one on Amazon at $55, but it's only 500GB and they don't have 4. This one is $75, more reasonable, but this is new territory for me and I'd like to benefit from the experience of others rather than just throw a dart at Amazon.

Lastly, can you just clone the existing drive or is this a forced reinstall?
 
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