Security
When we think about security we often focus on things such as encryption, policies, procedures, building access processes, passwords and the like. We even look into tools for secure Email messaging.
However, many of us walk around with the keys to the company residing in our laptop. Often, if we are developers, we have the source code in some state sitting right there in clear text.
Recently my boss had his laptop stolen out of his car trunk while we were eating a meal. He was greatly inconvenienced. At that point, it became clear to me that I could no longer allow my hard disk to be accessed without some protection.
Remember, a hacker doesn’t have to log into your machine to access files contained on your local storage.
File encryption is a must, if your hardware may be accessed. It is most critical for portable hardware. Desktop machines may be at a lesser risk…but, you never know.
One colleague uses an open source disk encryption tool requiring him to provide a password before the disk will unlock, and the system will even boot. He says it took a while for the contents to finish initial encryption, but once encrypted he doesn’t recognize any noticeable degradation in performance while working with even large projects.
Drop a note to btaylor@sswug.org if you have other security tips you’d like to share.
Cheers,
Ben
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