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su-nFlag for Germany

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DriveCrypt Plus Pack: encrypt only boot partition? And general DCPP question.

I'm using DriveCrypt Plus Pack 3.9 with one hd, which has 2 partitions c:\ (boot) and d:\ (data)
(XP Pro)

1. I've read different things about encrypting partitions with dcpp. Some say it's highly recommended to encrypt ONLY c:\ some do say c:\ and d:\ should be encrypted. (Remember it's one hd)

What do the experts think about it? Should I encrypt one or both partitions?

2. I do use Bootauth with 2 passwords to gain access. Both passwords do have a length of app 25 (numbers, chars, signs)

As the hd is encrypted with AES256 and this is know to be pretty safe, but what about the passwords? A length of 25 (using 2 passwords) is nice, but when someone wants to gain access, he hasn't has to decrypt the hd, he has "only" to brute-force the 2 passwords. (Or am I wrong here?) And to brute-force 2 passwords should be more easy than decrypting a hd which is AES256 encrypted.

Respectfully yours,
sun :)
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Tolomir
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q90887

Tolomir, the guy asked a question about the encryption he already have installed on his machine. He asked a particular question about DriveCrypt Plus Pack 3.9. He DID NOT ask for suggestions about other encryption programs. So I think you're offtopic suggesting him to use TrueCrypt.
Besides, TrueCrypt DOES NOT encrypt the Operating System.
@Q90887 I've used the normal drivecrypt myself fort a couple of years.

Now I'm using the free vmware server and keep the image in a truecrypt archive.

I no longer need full harddisk encryption, for being secure. So this was just an idea no recipe how to handle the "problem".

---

Regarding security @ boottime:


* Anti dictionary and brute-force attack mechanisms (due to the nature of DCPP, it is the most difficult system to attack compared to anything else available.)

@sun: If you really want to be secure: I suggest you get a Rainbow iKey 1000 USB-based two-factor authentication token, also available from Securstar (1) That way one cannot force you to tell them the DCPP password, since you simply don't know it.

(1) http://www.securstar.com/products_usbtoken.php


Tolomir  
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Nope just truecrypt and drivecrypt.

Honestly securstar (drivecrypt) pissed me off by needing to confirm my order payed by credit card (just another year's maintenance) by a phone call.

I said WHAT????

Deinstalled that stuff, used truecrypt and it's smooth and I've even donated some money via paypal.

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Here is some comparison:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_disk_encryption_software

Tolomir


P.S. regarding keyloggers: it's wise to keeps a part of the password on an usbstick. This leaves a keylogger quite helpless. That way the passphrase consists of a password and some filecontent, in truecrypt this could be some mp3 file, all that counts is data....

At least Truecrypt and Drivecrypt comes with that feature...
What hapends if I lose the usbstick?
Well it is just a file.

I.e. you give truecrypt a password + a file. Both could be stored anywhere.

You could even use c:\boot.ini as file. In that case you better make sure it is never changed :-)