Is your PC encrypted?

Ductape wrote:
Today I was considering how stressful it would be to lose the notebook or have it stolen. The info is backed up, and computers can be purchased, but I would worry about some of the information being in the wrong hands. I keep certain sensitive files individually protected, but after thinking about the ramifications I elected to spend $99 and get the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, and use Bitlocker to encrypt the whole thing.

One less thing to worry about if it goes missing now.

As an aside, it's thieves I'm thinking of, not big brother, so if we can let's just detour around that whole aspect.

I just don't want crooks looking through my photos or reading my correspondence.

The experts at work are using this method, so I figured it's good enough for me.

Sounds like a good idea. Since Windows 7, Bitlocker supports whole-disk encryption now, or was it Vista. There are two avenue available to Windows, depending on your hardware. Newer SSD and even high end HDD support encryption at the drive level, and integrate with bitlocker, so a special chip on the drive handles all the math and there's no slowdown to the PC. The other is software encryption, and the math is handled by a co-processor inside the cpu.

One thing to keep in mind, both forms are vulnerable to having the encryption keys forcibly removed from RAM... some kid grabs your laptop, hops on a motor cycle and plugs in a charger, they get to a work space, hose the ram sticks down with freon, remove them from the laptop and put 'em into a gizmo that dumps the contents to a usb drive. Search the contents for the big keys (they stand out), and poof encryption is gone. Depending on what sort of thieves you're concerned about, Bitlocker may not be the right protection for your information.

I'm not so sure that I want Windows 10.

downtheroad wrote:
A lot of what is on my computer is not sensitive and I don't care if others see it...pictures of the dogs, music files, ect.

So, I only encrypt and password protect certain files and documents.

Keep in mind that your photos may also have meta-data which identifies locations, dates, times, etc. You may not care if someone can see a picture of your house or your child's school, but meta-data can tell where your house and school are located and that can be useful information in the wrong hands.

I'm so non-techno I don't have to worry about that.

NOTHING on my laptop and my cell phone is 8 yr old flip phone that makes calls nothing else :B

A lot of what is on my computer is not sensitive and I don't care if others see it...pictures of the dogs, music files, ect.

So, I only encrypt and password protect certain files and documents.