Re: Cruel Office Situation

From: Google Mike (googlemike_at_hotpop.com)
Date: 07/10/05

  • Next message: Mohammad Hashemian: "A problem with PCMCIA while booting SuSe 9.2" 
    Date: 9 Jul 2005 21:43:07 -0700

    All is well now.

    This laptop didn't come with a CDROM (uses power) so I had no way to
    make a boot install I would use on a daily basis without using one of
    the more expensive kinds of USB memory sticks. I could use a big luggy
    USB CDROM, but that's not practical on a dialy basis.

    Regarding the issue of Utemico Safeguard drive encryption, I found that
    I could do the following. At first I thought this wouldn't work, but it
    did and I'm typing this email from it.

    1. Install Windows XP on my laptop via USB CDROM.
    2. Use PartitionMagic to decrease the partition of XP back to size it
    needed + 5 more GB via USB floppy.
    3. Used PartitionMagic to install a 200MB FAT32 partition where I can
    exchange files.
    4. Install Ubuntu Linux in last remaining, large partition via USB
    CDROM.
    5. Install the Safeguard encryption for the C: drive and reboot when it
    tells you to.
    6. Removing the CDROM and booting up, it puts a boot password right
    after the BIOS screen.
    7. You type in the boot password and you see GRUB menu.
    8. You can choose either Linux or Windows and both seem to work.
    9. Now take your Linux and create an encrypted filesystem on it so that
    it is more secure. In the event that someone figures out how to blow
    away the MBR and make it boot right into Linux, they won't be able to
    find your encrypted stuff (hopefully).

    The casual thief of this kind of laptop will be frustrated with
    extracting financial or other confidential data because it has this
    boot password before you even see the GRUB menu. Meanwhile, even if
    they get in, hopefully most of your stuff will be unavailable to the
    thief. (Granted, however, there are temp files, swap files, and some
    other files that may leave traces of confidential information on the
    Linux partition.)

    The word from the company is that they are now looking for either an
    OS-blind hard drive encryption package, or something that works with
    Windows and Linux OSes.

  • Next message: Mohammad Hashemian: "A problem with PCMCIA while booting SuSe 9.2"

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