Bitlocker ; Do I need it If?

[PCfixinman]

Hi,

I bought 2 copies of Vista Ultimate(I always like the best of the OS's, &
despite the naysayers, calling it WinME2<their problem< I've been enjoying
my Vista OS's,(without any problems so far 3 t this is the months in on one,
& 1 month on the other)

The one for my Dell Inspiron 6400, is the one I'm asking,
if I need Bitlocker running on it.
It has Lojack, plus a screen that requires a password, right after POST,
or it shuts down. It also has a HDD Password, (which I have activated)

However, this is the laptop I run my business from, and has alot of sensitive
materials(contacts, etc), work product, and contains my corporate strategies,
(you get the picture)

I need to know, if I should put Bitlocker on it as well, if I do, I need to
know how, since the motherboard, doesn't have the TPM hardware, my Tower PC
does.

It's an XP Pro SP2 & Vista Ultimate Edition Dual-boot.
I already have Bitlocker active on, as it doesn't lojack, or a integrated
security screen like the Dell. I keep all the security provided by ASUS, as
well.

Thanks for any help in this matter,

PCfixinman

 

[PCfixinman]

One other thing.

I don't use those stupid BIOS passwords, since it's well known that taking
the CMOS battery out, will reset it, and even if that didn't work 100%,
programs can get a hacker past it!

I just want to make sure the HDD drive on my notebook, (should the worst
happen)
is safe from those that would have possible access of my data.


TIA

pcfixinman


"PCfixinman" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I bought 2 copies of Vista Ultimate(I always like the best of the OS's, &
> despite the naysayers, calling it WinME2<their problem< I've been enjoying
> my Vista OS's,(without any problems so far. 3 months on the notebook one,
> & 1 month on the other)
>
> The one for my Dell Inspiron 6400, is the one I'm asking,
> if I need Bitlocker running on it.
> It has Lojack, plus a screen that requires a password, right after POST,
> or it shuts down. It also has a HDD Password, (which I have activated)
>
> However, this is the laptop I run my business from, and has alot of sensitive
> materials(contacts, etc), work product, and contains my corporate strategies,
> (you get the picture)
>
> I need to know, if I should put Bitlocker on it as well, if I do, I need to
> know how, since the motherboard, doesn't have the TPM hardware, my Tower PC
> does.
>
> It's an XP Pro SP2 & Vista Ultimate Edition Dual-boot.
> I already have Bitlocker active on, as it doesn't lojack, or a integrated
> security screen like the Dell. I keep all the security provided by ASUS, as
> well.
>
> Thanks for any help in this matter,
>
> PCfixinman

 

[P. Di Stolfo]

Hello,

here's a guide to install BitLocker without having a TPM: http://www.windowsblog.net/2007/06/08/windows-vista-use-bitlocker-drive-encryption-without-tpm-chip/
I, for instance, don't have a TPM chip, so I have to use my USB flash drive which I plug in on bootup.

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo

"PCfixinman" <PCfixinman@discussions.microsoft.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:AFB45B73-87FD-44BF-9C3F-BE79AFC644AE@microsoft.com...
> One other thing.
>
> I don't use those stupid BIOS passwords, since it's well known that taking
> the CMOS battery out, will reset it, and even if that didn't work 100%,
> programs can get a hacker past it!
>
> I just want to make sure the HDD drive on my notebook, (should the worst
> happen)
> is safe from those that would have possible access of my data.
>
>
> TIA
>
> pcfixinman
>
>
> "PCfixinman" wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I bought 2 copies of Vista Ultimate(I always like the best of the OS's, &
>> despite the naysayers, calling it WinME2<their problem< I've been enjoying
>> my Vista OS's,(without any problems so far. 3 months on the notebook one,
>> & 1 month on the other)
>>
>> The one for my Dell Inspiron 6400, is the one I'm asking,
>> if I need Bitlocker running on it.
>> It has Lojack, plus a screen that requires a password, right after POST,
>> or it shuts down. It also has a HDD Password, (which I have activated)
>>
>> However, this is the laptop I run my business from, and has alot of sensitive
>> materials(contacts, etc), work product, and contains my corporate strategies,
>> (you get the picture)
>>
>> I need to know, if I should put Bitlocker on it as well, if I do, I need to
>> know how, since the motherboard, doesn't have the TPM hardware, my Tower PC
>> does.
>>
>> It's an XP Pro SP2 & Vista Ultimate Edition Dual-boot.
>> I already have Bitlocker active on, as it doesn't lojack, or a integrated
>> security screen like the Dell. I keep all the security provided by ASUS, as
>> well.
>>
>> Thanks for any help in this matter,
>>
>> PCfixinman

 

[Steve Riley [MSFT]]

The answer to "Do I need BitLocker?" is the same as the answer to "Do I need
protection from the threats BitLocker mitigates?"

According to the 2006 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey
(http://www.auscert.org.au/crimesurvey), laptop theft is the most prevalent
attack during the last four years. Such theft is also, more than any other
attack, a source of financial loss. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
maintains a list of data breaches
(http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm) starting from
January 2005 as of 9 July 2007, the list is 158,051,696 records long.

Laptops (and, increasingly, smartphones) expose data to risks not previously
encountered -- because the data is now mobile. We can no longer rely on the
physical weight of desktop machines to act as somewhat of a barrier against
theft. Nor can we rely on network access controls, because data sitting on a
laptop's hard drive isn't subject to the ACLs on a file server. Because
we've pretty much lost the ability to use possession controls
(gates/guards/guns, ACLs) we must now plan for and deploy confidentiality
controls (encryption) instead.

Do you need BitLocker? Well, do you carry data that's interesting to a bad
guy, that would cost you (time, money, reputation) if compromised or stolen?
If so, then yeah, you need BitLocker.

Steve Riley
steve.riley@microsoft.com
http://blogs.technet.com/steriley


"PCfixinman" <PCfixinman@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AFB45B73-87FD-44BF-9C3F-BE79AFC644AE@microsoft.com...
One other thing.

I don't use those stupid BIOS passwords, since it's well known that taking
the CMOS battery out, will reset it, and even if that didn't work 100%,
programs can get a hacker past it!

I just want to make sure the HDD drive on my notebook, (should the worst
happen)
is safe from those that would have possible access of my data.


TIA

pcfixinman


"PCfixinman" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I bought 2 copies of Vista Ultimate(I always like the best of the OS's, &
> despite the naysayers, calling it WinME2<their problem< I've been
> enjoying
> my Vista OS's,(without any problems so far. 3 months on the notebook one,
> & 1 month on the other)
>
> The one for my Dell Inspiron 6400, is the one I'm asking,
> if I need Bitlocker running on it.
> It has Lojack, plus a screen that requires a password, right after POST,
> or it shuts down. It also has a HDD Password, (which I have activated)
>
> However, this is the laptop I run my business from, and has alot of
> sensitive
> materials(contacts, etc), work product, and contains my corporate
> strategies,
> (you get the picture)
>
> I need to know, if I should put Bitlocker on it as well, if I do, I need
> to
> know how, since the motherboard, doesn't have the TPM hardware, my Tower
> PC
> does.
>
> It's an XP Pro SP2 & Vista Ultimate Edition Dual-boot.
> I already have Bitlocker active on, as it doesn't lojack, or a integrated
> security screen like the Dell. I keep all the security provided by ASUS,
> as
> well.
>
> Thanks for any help in this matter,
>
> PCfixinman