LeightonJames Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 One of the schools I look after has expressed an interest in Whole Drive Encryption for the staff laptops. I used to recommend using TrueCrypt as it was easy to use and free. As this software is no longer actively developed I am uncomfortable recommending its use anymore. I explained this to the Headteacher and he agreed that it was not a good idea to use it. With this in mind I started to research the different options and there are far too many to sift through. The school is running Windows 7 Professional throughout so I am unable to use Bitlocker on them. What do you all use for your schools? If it is a paid solution that is fine, the school are aware there may be a cost implication for this. Thanks
Steve21 Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 Depending on your licensing (EES etc) and how many laptops there are, would you not consider just upgrading those staff laptops to enterprise? If you're using EES it should basically be free already, and anything that works on Professional should work without changes on Enterprise Steve
3s-gtech Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 We just swapped from Truecrypt to Veracrypt. Even the interface is the same.
Dos_Box Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 We just swapped from Truecrypt to Veracrypt. Even the interface is the same. I know Veracrypt is a spin-off but can it open old Truecrypt volumes?
DJ-1701 Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 I know Veracrypt is a spin-off but can it open old Truecrypt volumes? According to their documentation, yes . Starting from version 1.0f, VeraCrypt supports loading TrueCrypt volumes and partitions, both normal and hidden. In order to activate this, you have to check “TrueCrypt Mode” in the password prompt dialog as shown below. Source: https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=TrueCrypt%20Support 1
3s-gtech Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 Yup, you just tick the Truecrypt Mode button when mounting. 1
FN-GM Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 Depending on your licensing (EES etc) and how many laptops there are, would you not consider just upgrading those staff laptops to enterprise? If you're using EES it should basically be free already, and anything that works on Professional should work without changes on Enterprise Steve If you are not licenced for Windows 7 Enterprise. If you upgrade to Windows 8 or 10 Professional bit locker is included.
PotNoodleTech Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 It might be worth combining this "possible cost implication" with you're future planning as if you Licence the desktop part of EES you will then be able to install win7 enterprise on the laptops and thus use bitlocker. As a side bonus, you will then be able to install Win 8 or Win 10 on you're PCs whenever you wish, so that's the future proofing / future plan part ticked as well as the encryption. Depending on the size of the school you should be looking at £1k-£2k/year to licence the desktop part.
Michael Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 As above, you can encrypt system and removable drives in Windows 10 Education as standard using Bitlocker.
PotNoodleTech Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 I'm looking at this too and will be temporarily using truecrypt on a few laptops. I noted Veracrypt but actually think Truecrypt is probably more secure as the code has been audited with a fine tooth comb and found to be secure, Veracrypt on the other hand are an unknown quantity - who are they? Where did they come from? What is their agenda? What code have they added to truecrypt?
Meldrew Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 I noted Veracrypt but actually think Truecrypt is probably more secure as the code has been audited with a fine tooth comb and found to be secure, Veracrypt on the other hand are an unknown quantity - who are they? Where did they come from? What is their agenda? What code have they added to truecrypt? Veracrypt is a fork (if that's the correct terminology) of TrueCrypt - they fixed the issues in TrueCrypt and released it as VeraCrypt. Meldrew.
3s-gtech Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 I'm looking at this too and will be temporarily using truecrypt on a few laptops. I noted Veracrypt but actually think Truecrypt is probably more secure as the code has been audited with a fine tooth comb and found to be secure, Veracrypt on the other hand are an unknown quantity - who are they? Where did they come from? What is their agenda? What code have they added to truecrypt? Veracrypt is source available, and used the audited code from Truecrypt but with some security improvements and bug fixes. It is more secure than Truecrypt.
Dodgex1 Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 As above Veracrypt is TC forked and is pretty much the same. I've just deployed Sophos SGN for encryption, it was less than 1k P/A for 50 users. Well easy, centrally managed and you can do remote recovery on it if someone forgets their password. Deployed via GPO and self registers each person as the "owner" of the device if you would like POA. POA will do pass through login using windows credentials so you don't need to have them login twice. 1
LeightonJames Posted October 28, 2015 Author Posted October 28, 2015 The school is on an EES yes, the reason that they are not running Enterprise is a management decision (from my company side) and is out of my hands. Windows 10 is not being rolled out yet due to SIMS/Capita not supporting it. The school don't like Windows 8.1 on the laptops and to be fair I understand that. I looked at Veracrypt but as has been pointed out they are a bit of an unknown entity. I have taken the issue to management in an effort to raise the option of using Enterprise. Thanks guys
FN-GM Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 I'm looking at this too and will be temporarily using truecrypt on a few laptops. I noted Veracrypt but actually think Truecrypt is probably more secure as the code has been audited with a fine tooth comb and found to be secure, Veracrypt on the other hand are an unknown quantity - who are they? Where did they come from? What is their agenda? What code have they added to truecrypt? @AButters have a read of this https://threatpost.com/veracrypt-patched-against-two-critical-truecrypt-flaws/114833/ 1
Michael Posted October 29, 2015 Posted October 29, 2015 The school is on an EES yes, the reason that they are not running Enterprise is a management decision (from my company side) and is out of my hands. Windows 10 is not being rolled out yet due to SIMS/Capita not supporting it. The school don't like Windows 8.1 on the laptops and to be fair I understand that. I looked at Veracrypt but as has been pointed out they are a bit of an unknown entity. I have taken the issue to management in an effort to raise the option of using Enterprise. Thanks guys I have SIMS and FMS running absolutely fine on Windows 10. Capita are always a bit slow to support new OSes officially, despite Windows 10 being in Beta for over 12 months. The problem with anything third party encryption wise, is something will always need installing. Bitlocker is installed by default and it's really easy to use too. I think the other important thing to note - not sure if Veracrypt does this, but Windows 10 only encrypts the data on the volume rather than the whole volume. This was a major headache in Windows 7 Enterprise, where you could be using 50GB of a 2TB drive, yet it will encrypt the whole volume taking considerable amounts of time!
sparkeh Posted October 29, 2015 Posted October 29, 2015 I have SIMS and FMS running absolutely fine on Windows 10. Mmm me too, however I understand the decision not to run SIMS and FMS on an unsupported OS. I can imagine the conversation with our LA SIMS Support Unit if we have a problem and they see we are running Win 10 (i.e. we are not going to support that).
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