Festival makes laptop encryption easy

Center News

To facilitate laptop information protection Centerwide, the Information Security Office is sponsoring a Laptop Encryption Festival Aug. 6-10. Get encryption for any laptop that accesses sensitive Center information by calling your local IT help desk or dropping the laptop off during the festival.

The Information Technology Resources and Policy Committee recommends whole-disk encryption for all Center laptops. To date, approximately 200 Center laptops have received encryption; for Administration and Clinical Research Division faculty and staff, laptop encryption is mandatory. The software encrypts every single data bit of the hard drive with a password chosen by the user. Without the password, the laptop will not boot and the data cannot be read, even by forensic software. A thief can reformat the hard drive and sell the laptop, but he or she can never read what's inside.

To receive free encryption, bring your laptop, its power supply and your Hutch NetID and password (for software-registration purposes) to the festival. Depending on your laptop's CPU speed and hard-drive size, the encryption process will take four to five hours.

We will also hand out free ($65 value), hardware-encrypted, 1GB USB flash drives (Microsoft OS only) to those who travel with sensitive data. Together, we can better protect the Center's information assets. For more information, see the Aug. 6 Center News Weekly online.

Laptop Encryption Festival

• Aug. 6-8, Yale Building, J2-108, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Aug. 8-10, Thomas Building, B1-076 (across from the library), 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

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