Protect Your Data! TrueCrypt 7.0a's Performance, Analyzed

[Guest]

Version 7.0a of TrueCrypt offers many new features, including hardware-accelerated AES encryption via processors that support the technology. We discuss the new features and look at the performance impact of running an encrypted system partition.

Protect Your Data! TrueCrypt 7.0a's Performance, Analyzed : Read more

 

[truchonic]

can we send this to sony?

 

[eddieroolz]

I like the jab at Sony in the opening page!

Anyhow. I've used TrueCrypt 7.0a for about a year now to secure my sensitive information. I've only encrypted a non-system partition as of now, but for the purpose of storing sensitive files the performance hit is unnoticeable. Took a bit of time to set up, but in the end, all worth it.

 

[kikireeki]

TrueCrypt is the best, but anyone who uses it should keep in mind that the data encrypted by it is not meant to be recoverable.

 

[Guest]

I encrypted my HP dm1z "netbook" system partition with Truecrypt. Even without AES-NI support by AMD E-350 the computer is still very responsive for non-gaming tasks. Thanks to Truecrypt for their great encryption utility and also to AMD for making a decent low-end APU.

 

[jrnyfan]

True Crypt pwns. fin.

 

[alidan]

a strong password and change it often...
yea thats so not happening.

i could make my password look like that,
€‡“ŸeVmAE•kvÕbœ
but it would be REALY HARD to remember, and changeing it on a, lets say, monthly basis.... who are you kidding.

i have a 5 letter password
i have an 8 letter password
and i have a 6 letter password for when places force me to use a number, but at the same time, wont let me have 2 letters that are the same in a password.

i find it agonizingly annoying that i cant use a 5 letter password for everything, because i despise having more than 1. its my account, i will make it as secure as i want. i pay 10$ a month for id theft protection, is an account is lost because of "hacker" i tell someone about it and the account is dead to me.

i have only had 1 hacker in my life go for any one of my 100's of accounts (i mean 100's literally) and that is my gaia account that i made when gaia was new, and someone tried to brute force the account, 5 times back in 2008 (i have the emails in a special folder labeled F@$#ING BRUTEFORCER, without the censoring) and not a f@#$ was given by gaia (i didn't care, i stopped using it years before, i just informed them that some a$$hole was hacking my account to hopefully ban them, but they told me to p!SS off in almost those exact words). honestly security is overrated, yea id theft is bad, if you are parinoid, get protection and stop worrying, get a password that is 10 letters and number long, as no one is bruteforceing that, refuardless of where the account it, as long as they don't have your info or actually hacked the service.

 

[memadmax]

alidan,
hackers use bruteforce as last resort as it takes so long.
Now they do the sneaky worm into your keyboard with a keylogger most times. Or if they are really targeting you, or want you bad, they will dig in your garbage....
Net Security 101...

 

[sudeshc]

You want best encryption deal with the drawbacks as you find them or else write your own encryption logic.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]memadmax[/nom]alidan,hackers use bruteforce as last resort as it takes so long.Now they do the sneaky worm into your keyboard with a keylogger most times. Or if they are really targeting you, or want you bad, they will dig in your garbage....Net Security 101...[/citation]

not realy, what they do first and formost, is check any online foot mark you have. usualy your password is something you know, such as mothers maden name or a birthday. i use to use my birthday completely spelt out, but that is to long for MANY passwords, and, as you can see, my spelling is atrocious, so i spell it wrong 9 times out of 10.

but its my point exactly, they will get the info weather you want them to or not, and odds are, they will dumpser dive a hospital, dentist office, or doctors to get the info before they will ever go online.

 

[Wamphryi]

I think that some may be missing the point about the benefits of encryption. For data on more portable media Truecrypt is most excellent. Also to be considered is that the data thief you should worry most about is not the Super Hacker on line but the opportunist thief who happens to steal your laptop. Your mail and photos etc in the hands of some petty thief?

 

[Guest]

"i find it agonizingly annoying that i cant use a 5 letter password for everything, because i despise having more than 1. its my account, i will make it as secure as i want."

It's your account, but it's their service. You're just a user, while they are an owner. They will decide the baseline for password length/complexity and you will comply because they take a serious PR hit if your password is hacked.

 

[tommysch]

I decrypt EAS 256-bit at 3.3Gbps on a 2500K. Decryption is faster than the drive...

 

[awood28211]

I work as a software developer for an organization that keeps private records on thousands of individuals... records that US law states MUST be confidential. My primary workstation is my laptop which at all times contains complete copies of source code for intranet site(s), applications and complete databases that these access. It would be devastating for this laptop to "walk" away from my desk, out of my car, my home or to be wrangled from my shoulder as I walk through a parking lot... It is a job requirement that I can be mobile and able to work at any time which is why I carry this information on my laptop.

TrueCrypt is my encryption program of choice. I run Windows 7 and encrypt the entire system drive. My password is long, uses no real words, mixed case, #s and symbols. It is vital this password not be guessed by anyone. Only 3 people know this password, myself, a fellow developer and my department manager. I have an i7 cpu that supports the AES accelaration and my system is always quite responsive. TrueCrypt was installed the same day as the OS so I took away the worry from myself that I'd notice a before and after performance difference.

I feel VERY confident that using TrueCrypt will keep anyone away from this data. While a "lost" laptop might result in some lost source code or database changes that have not been committed to our repository plus the cost of replacing the laptop (insurance FTW), I'd much rather re-do 8 hours of work than fret over exposing all this data to anyone savvy enough to explore a SQL database. I am aware of TDE for SQL2008 but our requirements are for more than the data (source code too!) and I feel double encryption (the file system and the DB on top) is not necessary.

 

[Bolbi]

Unfortunately, not quite every Sandy Bridge CPU supports AES-NI. Two of the low-end mobile Core i7 processors (2630QM and 2635QM) don't offer the extra instruction set. And my new laptop uses the 2630QM...

 

[TrinityTP]

"Brute force is as good as futile, given the 256-bit-strong AES encryption algorithm."

Please don't spread this drivel... Your OMFG 1000million bit key is ultimately protected by your volume password. So guess what? It's the password they will brute force and that is only slowed down by key hardening (which true crypt does) and not the key size.

By the way, brute force on 128bit is still way way out of reach of current hardware (even the power consumption of a perfectly efficient computer to run though 2^128 states is truly staggering). People only consider 256bit as important in case fast quantum computation becomes viable in the next few decades since a quantum computer can break a 256bit with "only" 2^128 steps.

 

[Guest]

Would it be possible to rerun the IOMETER tests using an SSD which isn't based on a SandForce controller, i.e. one which doesn't mind whether you are dealing with compressible or incompressible data?

 

[Guest]

@alidan

lol...... im guessing you got nothing of strategic value to a hacker, seriously how many of your 100s of accounts hold strategic value? i would more then happily give a weak password for my spam collector e-mail but the one that's attached to my online Bank account is hella strong same way i presume you would not want to use a 5 digit password for your online bank account, and if you really do have that many accounts i suggest you use a password vault, that way you dont have to go around remembering all those strong password, one strong one would be enough (sometimes i wonder if i really am i commenting on a tech website)

ID theft protection is close to useless if your personal information has become compromise, it is merely a damage control tool, if the criminal ever get a hold of enough personal info to ID theft you, you more or less become a victim for life

 

[dgingeri]

From a support standpoint, I hate full drive encryption like this. I've had to rescue so many laptops where the MFT was damaged, and the only way to do it was to pull the hard drive, attach a USB adaptor, hook it up to another machine, and run chkdsk /f to rescue any data.

With these programs, that recovery is impossible. Just before I left my last permanent job, we had just implemented a program like this, and I had 3 users lose everything because of that full drive encryption program in less than a year. In all three cases, the drive was physically fine, and I could have rescued the data if the drive wasn't encrypted.

It just makes support so much more difficult.

 

[Niva]

I would've liked to see 6.1 in the benchmarks and how it compares to 7.0

Been using TC for years now, I think since version 4.something and find it absolutely essential for storing my secure info like tax returns and passwords. You can actually use triple-encryption and etc.

I've never done a whole encrypted drive.

Very long passwords are easy to remember, you can create giant passwords like Michael.Jackson.is.dead?yes! and it will make you smile every time you type it in.

 

[lasaldude]

"IT service provider Unisys found the following: while 72% of the people asked feared the possibility of identity theft, only 37% of them used strong passwords and changed them regularly. In plain English, in the face of a vague threat, people prefer taking a risk over making an effort. Clearly, this is a true revelation of human nature (Ed.: that's just dripping with sarcasm)."

That's not true, I work for Unisys in SLC, I'm here right now at work reading this. All the companies I support required password changes frequently all the Time and to use complex requirements for their password.

 

[bounty]

So how many Sysmarks faster does a Word doc open w/o encryption? Please don't rely primarily on synthetic benchmarks for testing, it's useless to people who don't regularly use Blobmark or whatever. Also, a regular laptop HDD and a desktop HDD should have been tested. Real world testing! I have no idea if you would actually notice the speed difference, especially since you're using an SSD. (Like the difference between 150 and 200 fps) I like the premise here, please re-test with more real world feedback.

PS I wouldn't hate it if you tested a game or two (Gamers have data too!)

 

[pinkfloydminnesota]

Shouldn't the real money anyone has be unaccessible from their usual computer?

 

[thespin]

My understanding is that you don't get the full benefit of 256-bit encryption unless you use a 256-bit (32 chars) password. So if you use a 10 char password, brute force methods are quite doable especially since most people use the chars easily available on their keyboard.

TrueCrypt and BitLocker apparently are great tools for situations where the perp has physical access to your data storage device such as loss or theft of a laptop. However, I am concerned about a perp's access to my system over the internet which I don't believe these two tools prevent. Is there a recommended article at Tom's Hardware on this aspect of securing one's system ? Thanks.

 

[weaselsmasher]

To those who want strong passwords but worry about how to remember them, try this:

1. Choose a quote or some other memorable phrase. Example: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
2. Take the first letter, including honoring capitalization, of every word, the punctuation, and convertible-to-numbers words. For the above: Twcrtpac2ri.
3. Apply a simple alteration: maybe invert capitalization, or shift your fingers one key to the left or right. Thus: Yevtypsf3to/

There's your password. Ain't nobody gonna guess that, short of the Rubber Hose Key Recovery System.

No, I don't do this with my passwords I have a different mnemonic-retention mechanism.

BTW, I see that an SSD was used in the test system. It would be interesting to see spinning media too. In particular, I would be interested in seeing whether an encrypted SSD offers similar performance to an unencrypted hard drive, or whether the hit taken by using spinning media is proportionately the same as with an SSD (i.e. whether TrueCrypt is smart enough to be working on encrypting the next write while waiting for the hard drive heads to seek to the current write).