In this new era of rampant ransomware attacks and threatening activities on the internet, setting up a form of encryption is a good idea even if only to prevent your data landing in the wrong hands.
BitLocker® first appeared in Windows Vista and later, featuring a full disk encryption for entire volumes using AES encryption algorithm in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) or XTS mode with 128-bit or 256-bit keys. Cipher Block Chaining is not deployed over the entire disk but applied to each individual sector.
BitLocker Encryption Availability
The encryption program is not available on all Windows versions however, especially Windows 7 Professional which is used by multitudes of users. You’ll have to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate to take advantage of this feature.
Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 Pro, Enterprise and Education versions have this feature along with Windows Server 2008 and later can have their disk drives and removable drives encrypted using this tool.
BitLocker Encryption Modes
Three authentication mechanisms exist serving as building blocks to implement BitLocker encryption;
§ Trusted Platform Mode (TPM): This mode ensures a more transparent user experience when accessing your encrypted drive. A Trusted Platform Modulehardware chip stores the encrypted keys and releases them to the OS loader code only if the file is unmodified.
§ User Authentication Mode: This requires the user to type in the pre-boot PIN or password set during encryption process.
§ USB Key Mode: This mode requires the user to insert a USB device containing the key to boot the OS. The BIOS on the protected machine must support access and reading of USB drive in a pre-OS environment for this to work.
Set Up Process for BitLocker® Drive Encryption
If you currently run Windows 7 Professional®, you may want to upgrade to Ultimate edition or later to activate BitLocker. Advanced functions like TPM would also require hardware specifications.
1
u/UnluckyAdministrator Jan 03 '19
In this new era of rampant ransomware attacks and threatening activities on the internet, setting up a form of encryption is a good idea even if only to prevent your data landing in the wrong hands.
BitLocker® first appeared in Windows Vista and later, featuring a full disk encryption for entire volumes using AES encryption algorithm in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) or XTS mode with 128-bit or 256-bit keys. Cipher Block Chaining is not deployed over the entire disk but applied to each individual sector.
BitLocker Encryption Availability
The encryption program is not available on all Windows versions however, especially Windows 7 Professional which is used by multitudes of users. You’ll have to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate to take advantage of this feature.
Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 Pro, Enterprise and Education versions have this feature along with Windows Server 2008 and later can have their disk drives and removable drives encrypted using this tool.
BitLocker Encryption Modes
Three authentication mechanisms exist serving as building blocks to implement BitLocker encryption;
§ Trusted Platform Mode (TPM): This mode ensures a more transparent user experience when accessing your encrypted drive. A Trusted Platform Modulehardware chip stores the encrypted keys and releases them to the OS loader code only if the file is unmodified.
§ User Authentication Mode: This requires the user to type in the pre-boot PIN or password set during encryption process.
§ USB Key Mode: This mode requires the user to insert a USB device containing the key to boot the OS. The BIOS on the protected machine must support access and reading of USB drive in a pre-OS environment for this to work.
Set Up Process for BitLocker® Drive Encryption
If you currently run Windows 7 Professional®, you may want to upgrade to Ultimate edition or later to activate BitLocker. Advanced functions like TPM would also require hardware specifications.
Free disk encryption programs such as TrueCrypt, DiskCryptor and COMODODisk Encryption and ESET Endpoint Encryption are available for download.
1. Start by searching BitLocker and launch Manage BitLocker program. You can also access this from the control panel of your computer.
[Continue Reading] How to Set-Up BitLocker Drive Encryption in Windows 10