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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

How NOT to encrypt your files

I had recently encrypted all the files on my USB drive with TrueCrypt. I was getting a little paranoid about losing it and having other people root through my stuff.

Unfortunately, TrueCrypt requires admin privileges to run - not a big deal at home, but a major obstacle at school. I learned this the hard way. I was asked by a teacher to show a YouTube video for the class, since that site is blocked. Before I encrypted everything, I could do this without a hitch. Portable Firefox with my favorite add-ons and Flash 9 via an SSH tunnel...bliss. Well, who was the idiot that decided NOT to give the teacher accounts local admin privileges?! I was basically locked out of my own stuff simply because I couldn't use TrueCrypt. What should have been a routine task turned into a fiasco and a hit to my rep.

So I've chosen to compromise convenience and security. All my documents are still encrypted, but I moved the apps into open space. Better luck next time...

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