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Whole disc encryption for school computers - advise please?

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  • 25-11-2014 1:18pm
    #1
    fat bloke
    Registered Users Posts: 5,861 ✭✭✭


    Hey guys/gals.

    In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. And so have I defaulted to the "IT guy" position in our school :). (I think being able to change printer cartridges is really what sealed it for me:)).

    Anyway, there are guidelines heading our way to have all school laptops encrypted in case of theft or loss. It's a motley selection of machines and operating systems. Can anyone recommend a relatively simple whole disk encryption service, preferably free, that won't be a pain in the butt to implement and manage? My googling points me at diskcryptor. - Bitlocker isn't an option cos the windows versions don't support it seems.

    We're talking about 20 laptops I suppose.

    Cheers.


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    #2
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,167 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    Is the Dept of Ed pushing that? Seems like a total waste of time for machines that are only going to have teaching resources on em. Only makes disk issue recovery more difficult.

    Truecrypt is all you need:
    http://www.ucd.ie/itservices/itsupport/itsecurity/howtoencryptyourharddriveonawindowspcusingtruecrypt/

    It'll promt the user to eter the decryption key on boot, done. Then to convince teaching staff not to write the pw on a sticker on the laptop itself...


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    #3
    degsie
    Registered Users Posts: 8,748 ✭✭✭degsie


    Get reading:
    http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-encryption-utility.htm

    Be prepared to get your head melted by users to loose/forget their passwords etc etc...


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    #4
    gouche
    Registered Users Posts: 416 ✭✭gouche


    Just to add, TrueCrypt isn't supported anymore and may have unfixed security issues.
    VeraCrypt forked from TrueCrypt in 2013 and is recommended but I haven't used it myself.


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    #5
    fat bloke
    Registered Users Posts: 5,861 ✭✭✭fat bloke


    I dunno man. Scrotes knowing their times tables? That's not a world I wanna live in. :)

    The Web tells me true crypt is no more?


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    #6
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,167 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    gouche wrote: »
    Just to add, TrueCrypt isn't supported anymore and may have unfixed security issues.
    VeraCrypt forked from TrueCrypt in 2013 and is recommended but I haven't used it myself.

    Theres a strong suspicion that the team threw their hands in the air and walked away due to a FISA letter, a problem if you care about the NSA snooping in your junk, but I doubt an irish national/secondary school would.


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    #7
    ressem
    Registered Users Posts: 2,426 ✭✭✭ressem


    fat bloke wrote: »
    Hey guys/gals.

    In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. And so have I defaulted to the "IT guy" position in our school :). (I think being able to change printer cartridges is really what sealed it for me:)).

    Anyway, there are guidelines heading our way to have all school laptops encrypted in case of theft or loss. It's a motley selection of machines and operating systems. Can anyone recommend a relatively simple whole disk encryption service, preferably free, that won't be a pain in the butt to implement and manage? My googling points me at diskcryptor. - Bitlocker isn't an option cos the windows versions don't support it seems.

    We're talking about 20 laptops I suppose.

    Cheers.

    Would it be worthwhile for yourself to contact SAMI to get an up-to date operating system volume license?
    Windows 8.1 Pro has bitlocker built-in


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    #8
    Mr. G
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 4,621 Mod ✭✭✭✭Mr. G


    You could use bitlocker on Windows 7 and Windows 8.
    Be sure to keep copies of all the keys somewhere safe.

    I presume the reason the Dept want this done is due to it being able to access school management software such as Facility or saved passwords on ePortal which may lead to a data protection breach. Better be safe than sorry


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    #9
    shanec1928
    Registered Users Posts: 4,148 ✭✭✭shanec1928


    Mr. G wrote: »
    You could use bitlocker on Windows 7 and Windows 8.
    Be sure to keep copies of all the keys somewhere safe.

    I presume the reason the Dept want this done is due to it being able to access school management software such as Facility or saved passwords on ePortal which may lead to a data protection breach. Better be safe than sorry

    Need a enterprise licence and up on w7 to use bitlocker. It only needs pro from 8 on.
    Use deslock myself but it costs money


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    #10
    one man clappin
    Registered Users Posts: 602 ✭✭✭one man clappin


    shanec1928 wrote: »
    Need a enterprise licence and up on w7 to use bitlocker. It only needs pro from 8 on.
    Use deslock myself but it costs money

    Can you encrypt the whole hard drive now with Deslock? I was looking at that a while back but they did not support Drive Encryption only files/folders encryption.


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    #11
    shanec1928
    Registered Users Posts: 4,148 ✭✭✭shanec1928


    one man clappin wrote: »
    Can you encrypt the whole hard drive now with Deslock? I was looking at that a while back but they did not support Drive Encryption only files/folders encryption.
    Yes hav my whole drive done. Supports uefi as of last week too.


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