That Technology Magazine

OK - so I don’t like paper. It clutters up the place. I am a big fan, however, of saving electronic archives - emails, data files, documents, and spreadsheets. Plus, I like to scan important personal and business documents into an electronic format (usually then converted into a PDF file) so that I have easy access to them when I’m at a meeting, on the road, or anywhere away from my small filing cabinet.

If I have a meeting with a tax or regulatory agency staff person, I usually take anything and everything I could possibly need either on my laptop or a USB drive. You never know what you’ll need - and time is valuable!

When you’re lugging around so much confidential, sensitive, or personal information, you’re opening yourself up to two risks: (1) data loss and (2) data theft.

Protecting yourself against data loss is easy… as I’ve written multiple blog entries about data backup - and am about to write another one about another great hosted backup service I’m currently using. Take your pick - offsite hosted storage, external hard drive, or stacks of CDs/DVDs - and you can’t go wrong. You can even back-up some items more than once using different methods to hedge your bets.

Data theft is a different story. It’s not just the stereotypical Veteran’s Administration or Internal Revenue Service employees who lose laptops. Anyone can either have one stolen (even from your office) or just plain forget it somewhere. And, if you use portable storage such as external hard drives or USB storage devices, there is even more opportunity to lose one somewhere.

One possible solution is to encrypt your most sensitive files that you store on a laptop or portable device. In a nutshell, if someone does not have the password and encryption program, the data is worthless. There is no way to decrypt at least the data you decided to encrypt. (Yes, in case you’re wondering, if you lose the password and don’t have an extra copy of the data, your data is good as gone.)

As is a tradition for me, here’s the open source solution - TrueCrypt. This FREE, open source software can be installed on a computer, hard drive, or USB storage device. You can also - to save space - use an entire USB device for encrypted data, if you are able to plug the USB storage device into a PC running TrueCrypt. You can encrypt some or all of your data - your call. And, since it’s open source, you can download it, give it a try, and not feel like you’ve bought something that you ended up not using.

The encryption and decryption can occur “on the fly” - so, in other words, you’re not waiting for something to scramble or unscramble. Other than running the TrueCrypt program and entering a password, everything else relating to your files will seem like business as usual. You can even encrypt programs and then decrypt them when you need to run them.

I can think of one scenario when it is super useful to use encryption. If you have a lot of financial, legal, or otherwise confidential documents that you need to carry around with you on a laptop or USB storage device, think about encrypting them.

One word to the wise is that you should not encrypt anything before backing it up elsewhere - preferably not encrypted (locked up or stored in a secure off-site location), if possible. Why? Encrypted data - like any data - can become corrupted or the physical devices can fail. Either way, you’ll probably never be able to use that data again. If you’re already backing up your data regularly, encryption can give you great peace of mind for the data that leaves your office with you on a laptop or portable storage device.

All is well.