I have found an amazing free tool to encrypt your laptop or PC and secure your data.  It’s called TrueCrypt, and I can’t say enough good things about it. I have found this very useful if you have sensitive data on your workstation or laptop that you want to keep secure.

Here is a quote from their website:

“TrueCrypt is software for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data is automatically encrypted right before it is saved and decrypted right after it is loaded, without any user intervention.” – TrueCrypt

I use this on a lot of my client’s computers. It’s fairly simple to install and only takes a few minutes. The actual encryption part of the process initially takes up to a few hours, but it processes in the background and the user hardly notices. After this process is complete, each time the computer is started, you will need to enter a password to allow the machine to boot. Without this password, the entire hard drive is encrypted and secure and any attempt to access the data will be useless.

Travel a lot? Secure Your Laptop!

This is especially useful if you have a laptop that you transport around a lot or if you travel for a living. If it was ever stolen out of your car, left at the coffee shop on accident, or lost luggage on an airplane, your data would be secure. The only way to access any part of your data is if the person has the password to do so. I recommend creating a long password that contains upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Also, don’t use words that are common or found in the dictionary, instead place numbers in for letters and make it a phrase you can remember. For example, make your password something like: Th1sP@$sw0rd!sGr3at! This way, it is easy to remember, but not easily cracked. Also, this is just an example, I won’t put the word “password” in my password even if I mix up letters and numbers. Make it something abstract but easy to remember.