Vista's BitLocker Encryption: All It's Cracked Up to Be?
 

*Source: ComputerWorld (http://www.computerworld.com/action/...e=rss_news50)*
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August 07, 2007 (Computerworld) -- When Microsoft announced that Windows Vista was going to be available in multiple editions, curiosity turned toward the higher-end versions of Vista targeted at corporate environments (Vista Enterprise) and enthusiasts (Vista Ultimate). Among the features in these high-end editions is BitLocker Drive Encryption (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/w...aa906018.aspx), which Microsoft included to address "the theft or unwanted disclosure of data made available through physical loss of computer devices."

Say what?

In plain language, BitLocker is an on-disk encryption system that encrypts the computer's boot drive, making the system data on it unreadable to unauthorized users -- someone who's just made off with your laptop at the airport, for example. Without a boot key -- either a manually entered PIN, a USB flash drive or a secure module on the PC itself -- everything on a BitLocker-encrypted drive is indistinguishable from random data.

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