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by bignaj 4351 days ago
Well, TrueCrypt (controversially) recommended BitLocker... that seems to be one of the few options left. Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft in a non-related division but I feel like if it's good enough to protect enterprise customers' secrets it's good enough for my personal use outside of work. You are free to use whatever you like, of course. The HN neckbeard illuminati will likely disagree with me, already aware of this. To each his/her own.
2 comments
fluidcruft 4351 days ago
BitLocker has the advantage of being accepted by my employer and now that XP was banished in favor of Win7 it's available on all of the company computers.

It has the extreme disadvantage that I can't mount my disk on anything except windows. Which is a no-go given that I mostly live in Linux and most of my colleagues do a lot of work with MacOS. We all have Windows machines for the bureaucratic stuff we must do (word documents, excel, various internal web portals that require IE or some sort of ActiveX plugin). The things is: when it comes to closed source companies, Microsoft is one that I am willing to accept that they have sound engineering and release policies. But they refuse to explain how it works, so we can't inter-operate and we have to do something else.

(Which for me means that I use a FIPS certified hardware encrypted USB drive with a built in keypad that you use to enter a pin, but for everyone else it basically means they don't bother and just use stupid unencrypted FAT drives and don't care if they "get caught". Or they try to use the awful Box sync shit IT is currently trying to foist on us)

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tux1968 4350 days ago
You should be able to mount BitLocker volumes under Linux with Fuse:

    https://github.com/Aorimn/dislocker
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bignaj 4351 days ago
Just to add some perspective... for most of the world lack of support for Linux isn't an extreme disadvantage. For most it's not a disadvantage at all. I have a Linux machine and use Linux servers just like you, but welcome to the HN bubble...
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Dylan16807 4350 days ago
That disclaimer really detracts from your post.

But on topic, BitLocker is only suitable for enterprise because it's simply unavailable for home versions.

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eli 4350 days ago
No, it's available on the "Ultimate" edition of windows too, which is for home use. Many higher-end Windows machines come with it already installed.
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bignaj 4350 days ago
I agree, but I feel like it's only fair to report any potential conflict of interest (come from a research background where this is standard). You are also incorrect: Bitlocker is not only available for enterprise versions. See the other reply to your comment :)
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Dylan16807 4350 days ago
It's not that you have a disclaimer, it's that you're being hostile in it.

Ultimate is a weird expensive combined edition that doesn't even exist for Windows 8. I didn't think I had to specifically exclude it, but I definitely don't accept it as making BitLocker available for 'home versions'

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