Issue TOC Print full article Print this page Download as PDF E-Mail this URL Flame the author     In this article Introduction The Eighth Commandment Disk-Encryption Software Report Card: Disk Encryption Software Lockdown Devices Report Card: Lockdown Devices Recovery Services Report Card: Recovery Services Executive Summary File-Encryption Products

Microsoft Encrypted File System, Included in Windows 2000 and XP. Microsoft Corp.: (800) 936-5200, (425) 882-8080; www.microsoft.com

Microsoft's EFS is built into Windows 2000 and XP. Encrypted File System is a bit of a misnomer because the file system is not encrypted. Instead, you right click to select individual files and directories to be encrypted. However, you can't transmit files in encrypted form. We encrypted a file and sent it via FTP to a remote server. It was in clear text on the remote side.

Also, you can't encrypt an entire drive, so you get this weird hybrid of a drive encryption model with the interface of a file/folder encryption program.

PC Guardian Encryption Plus File Encryption Plus Folders, $99.95 PC Guardian: (800) 288-8126, (415) 459-0190; www.pcguardian.com

To test PC Guardian Encryption Plus File we had the software encrypt a single large text file, then rebooted and ran Guidance Software's EnCase, a low-level hard-drive analyzer. In addition to the encryption, the original file was overwritten with null characters (normal file deletion merely says the file can be overwritten but doesn't actually delete the file). However, parts of the original file turned up in the swap file. Data also can show up in temp files and printer spools.

Although this method forces you to choose which files to encrypt, these files will copy or transmit in encrypted form. PC Guardian makes a few varieties of this product line, including products that encrypt all files in a folder, e-mail, and even CD-ROMs.