Compusec (free & spyware/malware free)

HERE, available for Windows or Linux.

It seems like every week y'hear a horror story about a stolen or lost desktop computer or laptop--and everybody is freakin' because of sensitive data, ready for the taking.

OK...for most folks the sensitive data may be entirely personal. For others, it's business related information like detailed membership or customer lists, financial information, passwords and so on.

Or maybe you just don't want unauthrorized folks poking around your computer, even though it's sitting right where it should be.

Well, if someone steals your computer--or just decides to boot it up and have a look--and you have Compusec running, what they get is nothing. Even if they take your hard drive out of your machine and put it in another computer, they still can't get at your data. Period.

OK--maybe the CIA could get in--but even then it would be expensive, and likely prohibitively expensive. But, bottom line, no street level thief is gonna be able to do anything to get around Compusec. For that matter, neither are nosy kids, friends or anyone else...

Here's how it works (quote from the Compusec website):

FREE CompuSec® intercepts all reads and writes to the hard disk. Just before information is written to the hard disk, Free CompuSec® encrypts it. Conversely, right after any data is read from the hard disk, FREE CompuSec® immediately decrypts it. So the process of encryption and decryption is transparent to the user. Note that first-time encryption takes a longer time than the subsequent encryption and decryption process.

Then, just for fun, Compusec writes a pre-boot access program (where you have to enter a password) to the very first sectors of your hard drive. In other words, the very first thing on the hard drive is the Compusec login. If the login isn't successful, then the computer is not gonna do anything except keep asking for the password.

Again, from the Compusec website:

CompuSec® has a pre-boot authentication mechanism that requires a modification of your Master Boot Record (MBR). Your MBR are files that contain important information on how and where your operating system is and other system information. Therefore, in order to authenticate the user before the operating system boots up, we are required to modify the MBR. Why do we need to do so? Well, as you might probably know, many [programs] (i.e. keylogggers) are able to spy and record keystrokes that are performed when you are using your PC. However, these programs can only run using the windows operating system.

In short: this is way more secure than a bios password: no password, no access. The data is encrypted and password protected, right from the get-go. As I mentioned, even if the hard drive is taken out and put in another machine, or even if the bios battery is removed and replaced, the pre-boot access control still works, and unauthorized folks get nowhere.

Caveats:

1) Read the instructions carefully, and don't forget your password (although Compusec does provide a workaround that only you can use if you do forget your password).

2) Your mileage may vary. I've used this software for months, trouble-free but always backup data you can't afford to lose, and store your backups somewhere else where you can get it if you need it.

3) It's an unlikely circumstance, but somone could always beat the password out of you. Assume that torture will work.