TrueCrypt 5.0 Released
February 7th, 2008
TrueCrypt is one of the must-have free Open-Source applications in my list. It is a Disk Encryption software you use for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device).
It’s really one of the most celebrated Open-Source applications, as it’s well engineered, simple to understand, simple to use and actually answers a very concrete need not too many solutions answer today.
Today TrueCrypt version 5.0 was released.
New features include:
- Ability to encrypt a system partition/drive (i.e. a partition/drive where Windows is installed) with pre-boot authentication (anyone who wants to gain access and use the system, read and write files, etc., needs to enter the correct password each time before the system starts). This sounds SO cool!
- Pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100% (Windows)
- Mac OS X version
- Graphical user interface for the Linux version of TrueCrypt
- XTS mode of operation
- SHA-512 hash algorithm
- Many more fixes and improvements
Read more and download TrueCrypt
February 11th, 2008 at 7:47
I installed TrueCrypt on my laptop and ran some benchmark tests.
Benchmark Results:
http://www.full-disk-encryption.net/wiki/index.php/TrueCrypt#Benchmarks
Pros:
1) Easy to use product. Simple clean interface. Amazingly user-friendly!
2) Free and Open Source
3) Multiple Encryption and Hashing algorithm available.
Cons:
1) Buffered Read and Buffered Transfer Rate were almost halved after TrueCrypt FDE was enabled :-(.
2) Access Time for large file (250+MB) increased by 11%.
3) The initial encryption of the 120 GB HDD took 2 hours.