For a few years I’ve been using a free program called TrueCrypt to protect sensitive data. As you can imagine, in a prosecutor’s office we handle data that is very damaging and extremely confidential. TrueCrypt helps protect it.

Using military grade encryption, TrueCrypt allows users to protect a folder or whole drive. I encrypt my whole flash drive I carry. That way if I lose it or someone steals it, all they get is a bunch of jumbled 1s and 0s they can do nothing with. TrueCrypt is free, and works just the way I need it to.

Initial setup is very easy, but make sure you follow the setup very carefully, as it can be a little confusing if you don’t. TrueCrypt has a good beginners tutorial HERE that makes setup easy.

Once you complete the initial setup, you never have to do it again. I create seperate 4 gigabyte encrypted files, that when “mounted” with the TrueCrypt software open as a traditional file that you can copy, cut, paste, save, etc…. to. When you choose to “unmount” the data you’ve been working on, it becomes an encrypted file that you can only open again with the TrueCrypt password you assigned the data.

Bottom line, if you deal with data that is important to you, encrypt it.