Category Archives: Encryption

A Look at the Performance Impact of Hardware-Accelerated AES

Posted on by
2

In 2010, semiconductor manufacturers began migrating the algorithmically intensive portions of the AES cipher on-die in the form of the AES-NI instruction set. Many cryptographic APIs and applications have enabled support for this new technology, and none hesitate to tout the promise of major performance improvements. Intel demonstrates 3x to 10x acceleration versus pure software implementations, while the authors of TrueCrypt set the expectation of 4x to 8x speed gains. Can these performance boosts be recognized in practice, and how much of these gains can be captured in present day, real world scenarios? Continue reading →

TrueCrypt 7.1 Released

Posted on by
Reply

Sparse remarks in the changelog for today’s updated release of the TrueCrypt free open-source disk encryption tool, version 7.1, the first new release in nearly a year. Primarily it looks like they have added support for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. I venture the usual assessment that this update may safely be viewed as optional for users already running at least TrueCrypt 7.0, the most recent major release, absent those experiencing any specific issues. Continue reading →

TrueCrypt 6.3 Released

Posted on by
Reply

The latest maintenance release of disk encryption tool TrueCrypt made general availability today, adding most notably updated operating system support, including support for Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6. The release notes don’t indicate anything terrifically critical, so this release may be viewed as optional for users already running at least TrueCrypt 6.1a, the last “highly recommended” maintenance update. That being said, I’ll be immediately updating all installations. Continue reading →

Applications of TrueCrypt, Part 1: Encrypted CDs

Posted on by
Reply

I previously discussed the merits of disk encryption as a countermeasure against the physical theft of portable computers and the leakage of private and confidential records that could ensue. But Full Disk Encryption is just scratching the surface of what can be done; the concept can and should be extended to all types of storage media, including portable media. I am currently using TrueCrypt‘s encrypted file-container volume capabilities to create encrypted CD-R’s and USB memory sticks both as part of my own regular secure backup and data vaulting operations and in the implementation of secure backup and data portability solutions for my customers. Continue reading →