Hi

[Spud1200]

Was reading on the official web site, and its a complex program. What I didnt understand was the fact you had to choose an encryption size, for a container file. But what if your Encrypting a 250+ MB File, how are you surposed to specifie a File size smaller than the original file. You know what a mean. Thats why I couldnt find a compression aspect built in to it. But mabie its as simple as being able to take a 176mb File and Encrypt it to an acutal 176MB. Like telling the program whats it is to do! Any help on that?

 

[luke127]

OH okay you need help with the program itself! Oh yes I can help there. Okay so what you need to do is open truecrypt if you have it if not then get it because you need it to understand what I am saying. Although there is a good guide on their site about making volumes. I will post pics under this but I gotta upload them first!

1. Open truecrypt and click new volume.
2. Click Create a new encrypted file container. Clcik Next (don't worry about encrypting your USB or C: drive yet!)
3. Just click standard volume. Click Next
4. Specify where the FILE for the volume will be placed (VIP!!) (Choose my documents for starters) Click Next.
5. Then choose your encryption type AND hash algorithm however if your just starting out just stick to the defaults. Click Next.
6. Choose the size. There are 3 buttons KB, MB, GB. These mean Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes. Choose the amount of gigs or megs you want it to be I usually go for 500 megs for a start.
7. Make a password. Be sure to make it 20 characters or more or truecrypt will recommend that you make a bigger password but if you don't care just click okay to the little window that pops up.
8. Then Format the volume and voila it will say volume created.
9. Go to my documents. You will see a blank file named whatever you named the volume. That is the volume however you cannot access it unless you mount it! But that will be in the next post.

Pics!

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The X's mean DON'T TOUCH! okay?

Okay this is how to mount a drive:

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Okay so what I have shown you should clear that up. But your not encrypting the actual file your placing it in an encrypted volume. Which to access the file you will need to mount the volume in Truecrypt and then go to my computer and access it from there. Hope this helped. Oh and Admins sorry about all the big posts and all of that but I couldn't fit all of it into 1 post so I had to make multiple posts. I am thinking about making a tutorial for Truecrypt. If there is already one then no but if not then yes I will make one

 

[KSoD]

I will say this. The main issue I see with TrueCrypt as well as using the built in BitLocker technology by Microsoft available for Win7 is that if something goes wrong, you are pretty much screwed. Take this into consideration.

Say you do get a virus. Now all of your documents are stored on your encrypted drive, but you cant access them cause you have TrueCrypt installed and Windows is not working for you to access them. Now you are forced to reinstall. At this point you are dead in the water. No way for you to get your data back.

The most simple thing you can do, keep your personal data on an external device that you only attach when you need to access the data. That way no matter what, no one can access it unless they are physically in your room. I have all my personal documents stored on my external drive and have it locked up in a fire safe that only I have a key for. So not only would they need to get the key from me, but they would have to know where I have the drive hidden. Then they could hook it up to a PC and see my personal data.

Going this route is far more effective than encrypting a drive. Drive Encryption can be broken. Sorry to inform you Luke, but if the FBI really wanted your data, they could get it. Even with the 768Byte encryption you used. While it may take their super computers some time to crack the encryption, it can be done. Nothing is safe given enough time. But with my method, my drive isnt attached all the time and cant be accessed unless I physically attach it. That is far more protection than encryption as you cant even get to the data. There is no knowing when I have my drive attached to know if it can be accessed.

The only thing I can say, BACKUP. You never know when something might go wrong. Last thing you want to do is have the system mess up and no way to get your data back.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Going this route is far more effective than encrypting a drive. Drive Encryption can be broken. Sorry to inform you Luke, but if the FBI really wanted your data, they could get it. Even with the 768Byte encryption you used. While it may take their super computers some time to crack the encryption, it can be done. Nothing is safe given enough time. But with my method, my drive isnt attached all the time and cant be accessed unless I physically attach it. That is far more protection than encryption as you cant even get to the data. There is no knowing when I have my drive attached to know if it can be accessed.

The only thing I can say, BACKUP. You never know when something might go wrong. Last thing you want to do is have the system mess up and no way to get your data back.

Brute forcing encryption is not really an effective option even for the government. Using AES 256 and a good key there is no risk of them brute forcing it within your lifetime or the lifetime of anyone you know.

 

[Yami]

Brute forcing encryption is not really an effective option even for the government. Using AES 256 and a good key there is no risk of them brute forcing it within your lifetime or the lifetime of anyone you know.

+1 to that. Even if they requisitioned all of Amazon's and Microsoft's cloud processing for the next year they'd be unlikely to get it done in any meaningful timeframe.

 

[kvinnie3]

Welcome, I am also new here.

 

[luke127]

Well you are right there is the chance of data loss but for me the virus or trojan would be checked numerous times by my 60anti virus firewalls curtesy of me and a friend working in the registry and a bit of binary. They would also have to get though my account password for which on the admin account that I use occasionally they will need about 20 supercomputers to crack as it is a staggering 30 characters long for the admin. But for the Standard user that I use it has a 14 character and mixed case with numbers and some symbols like & or ** etc So it will take the easy route through to the standard user and I can easily remove it from the PC because it cannot access and/or infect important windows files without my password. Easy to remove in safe mode by using the task manager.

 

[luke127]

The admin is mixed and symbols plus numbers in a random order. I have it written down in a note in a safe of mine with a gel print scanner.

Also guys why does my post count never go up from 8?

 

[Yami]

Also guys why does my post count never go up from 8?

There are some forums where your post count doesn't go up - Off-Topic and the Introductions forum are two such forums.

 

[luke127]

Oh Well that sucks! But hey? Why complain. Thanks for letting me know!