PGP Whole Disk Encryption comes to OS X
Yesterday PGP announced the availability of their Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) product for OS X next month. Although disk encryption products for the Mac currently exist (like TrueCrypt and FileVault), these solutions only encrypt part of a hard drive, such as a user’s home directory.
Full disk encryption (which is what WDE provides), on the other hand, encrypts every bit on a hard drive—in used or free space. This is important, because forensics products such as EnCase and FTK are very good at finding traces of sensitive information in unused disk space and temporary files like the swap. With full disk encryption, EnCase and FTK are ineffective if an encrypted machine is powered off.
Another reason why PGP WDE for Mac is exciting is because PGP is a highly respected security company and it’s WDE has been tested by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to meet its Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 (FIPS 140-2). Both the reputation of PGP and the FIPS-140 certification indicate that encryption algorithms employed in WDE have been implemented correctly. This is crucial because even secure encryption algorithms can be easily broken if implemented poorly.
Full disk encryption is a great tool for any organization to protect sensitive information. In the next year, Georgia State University will require that PGP Whole Disk Encryption be installed on every laptop, workstation, or server that stores sensitive information. If every organization followed a similar policiy, privacy breaches would not be the almost-weekly security farce that they are today.