Hard Disk Encryption
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      1. INFO CENTER
      2. Hard Disk Encryption

      Why Hard Disk Encryption?

      Your personal/business credentials and files/data are at risk without encryption!

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      You may say:

      • "Do I really need to install encryption for my computer?"
      • "All my data is in the cloud."
      • "I barely use this computer."
      • "When I connect to the company network, I use a VPN."

       

      To summarize, yes, we recommend to have all computers encrypted and there are many factors to conclude why it is recommended, this includes:

      1. If the drive where your operating system lives (Windows would be C:\ drive, while Mac would be: Macintosh HD) isn't encrypted, anyone will be able to see your unencrypted plaintext data and potentially manipulate it.
      2. You would like to secure your data from hackers, if your computer experienced a breach, you can stay calm knowing that your data can't be leaked/exported.
      3. Data loss can have devastating repercussions, such as: damaging reputation, financial loss, legal liability and more.
      4. Data leak can create a possibility an attacker would like to export data out of your system, if your laptop gets stolen or a thief tries to steal your hard disk at a public location (airport or coffee shop for example).
      5. There is higher risk, therefore higher insurance costs and liability when company/client data is exposed in an unencrypted hard disk.
      6. If an attacker has physical access with a thumb drive and your disk was unencrypted, the attacker can reset your operating system user password, log in as you and potentially inflict immense damage since the attacker now has access to anything you had as a user (VPN access, all browser password managers (Google Chrome, FireFox, Brave, Edge, etc), company/client/personal files and data, and more).

       

      This is becoming a requirement that can't be avoided, to enable encryption on Windows operating systems that would be turned on using Bitlocker which requires a physical hardware TPM chip on the Motherboard with a minimum version of 1.2 and Windows 10/11 Pro Edition.

      To enable encryption on Mac OS X, that would be turned on using FileVault.

       

      Click here for BitLocker Overview and Requirements.

      Click here for instructions to enable BitLocker (Windows 10/11 Pro Editions with adequate TPM chip version).

      Click here for FileVault overview and instructions to enable (Mac OS X).

       

      Please view the additional articles in the Knowledge Base for tutorials on how to enable them step-by-step with screenshots.

       

       

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