Thoughts on SafeBoot

On Sun, 6 Jul 2003 13:28:25 +0200, Frode wrote:

<Snip>
> Hopefully your fears are indeed unfounded I can only speak for myself
> when I say I'm not worried. The rescuedisk can unencrypt even if the OS has
> bombed and won't boot. The only way I see of my system becoming locked up
> is through harddrive failure. And since that involves losing data either
> way I don't see any reason to worry about encryption possibly forcing a
> loss of more, since in both cases a reinstall will likely be the result and
> all important data I have backed up on CD in a container either way.
>
> I wouldn't choose a drive encryption product that just appeared. SBS has
> been around for a long time and I couldn't find much negative to speak of
> when I googled around for feedback. My conclusion was that it was a mature
> enough product to not muck up without real good reason.
<Snip>

You certainly make good points and there are many favorable arguments for
full encryption. I think I may try full encryption on a PC, but not my
primary-use-PC for now ... my phobia remains intact. I have my PC organized
in such a way that I can reasonably take care of securing / erasing
sensitive personal data, although I do agree it does require more effort
than full-drive encryption. If nothing else, I may try full encryption on a
test PC just to see if it really can function without inhibiting
performance while editing 300 MB medium format scans in Photoshop. That
would really surprise me, but I suppose anything is possible. I really have
no need to build a PC fort against law enforcement; my security needs are
really for defense against the common thief who could, if made too easy,
obtain personal info (account numbers, etc.) or copyrighted images (mine)
from desktop PCs or backup storage media.

By the way, you may or may not have seen my post further down in the thread
about my deciding on Safeboot Vdisk. Simon said a new version would be out
in a "couple of days", but that was more than a couple of days ago. I
pointed out the fact that it seemed unlikely for a several reasons, but he
never responded; and guess what, still no new version available.

Thank you.

Vdiskker

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Vdiskker wrote:
> You certainly make good points and there are many favorable arguments for
> full encryption. I think I may try full encryption on a PC, but not my
> primary-use-PC for now ... my phobia remains intact.

That's not phobia, that's playing it safe. I ran SBS on several
non-essential machines for the full month of trial before buying and
installing on my main machine. I also tested other products but they were
quickly discarded due to price, reliability or both.

> effort than full-drive encryption. If nothing else, I may try full
> encryption on a test PC just to see if it really can function without
> inhibiting performance while editing 300 MB medium format scans
> in Photoshop.

I doubt you'll experience NO loss in performance. That seems theoretically
impossible since there's a driver between the OS and the harddrive that
needs to process the data in both directions. I ran a few benchmarks and
one (that showed a marked performance loss with my previous machine) showed
no more than 3% performance loss. That's pretty much within the margin of
error for performance measuring I would imagine. While another showed a
good 20% loss. If it's of interest to you only a test with the uses you
have will show whether there's a performance loss big enough to outweigh
the security benefits.

> have no need to build a PC fort against law enforcement; my security
> needs are really for defense against the common thief who could, if made
> too easy, obtain personal info (account numbers, etc.) or copyrighted
> images (mine) from desktop PCs or backup storage media.

That's the same reason I chose to encrypt my main computer. I don't fear
law enforcement but I don't like the idea of a thief getting all my data as
a bonus if he breaks in and grabs my computer.

> days ago. I pointed out the fact that it seemed unlikely for a several
> reasons, but he never responded; and guess what, still no new version
> available.

They did release SafeBoot Enterprise 4.2 though. Presumably a simultaneous
vdisk release was intended I guess, but for whatever reason didn't happen.
I've learned not to trust promises in the computer industry when it comes
to release schedules


- --
Frode

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Frode

Pah! It's sitting in the release directory waiting to go live.. maybe
something to do with everyone having a hangover after the presidents wedding
party on Friday...

sorry for the delay - it's all code complete so I can't see it taking a
significant length of time to hit the web site...

Simon.

>
> They did release SafeBoot Enterprise 4.2 though. Presumably a simultaneous
> vdisk release was intended I guess, but for whatever reason didn't happen.
> I've learned not to trust promises in the computer industry when it comes
> to release schedules
>

Simon Hunt

"Vdiskker" <***@*.net> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sun, 6 Jul 2003 13:28:25 +0200, Frode wrote:
>
snip..
Simon said a new version would be out
> in a "couple of days", but that was more than a couple of days ago. I
> pointed out the fact that it seemed unlikely for a several reasons, but he
> never responded; and guess what, still no new version available.
>


sorry - can't see that message on my reader? What do you think is unlikly?
Simon.

Simon Hunt

On Mon, 7 Jul 2003 09:52:42 +0100, Simon Hunt wrote:

> "Vdiskker" <***@*.net> wrote in message
> news:...
>> On Sun, 6 Jul 2003 13:28:25 +0200, Frode wrote:
> snip..
> Simon said a new version would be out
>> in a "couple of days", but that was more than a couple of days ago. I
>> pointed out the fact that it seemed unlikely for a several reasons, but he
>> never responded; and guess what, still no new version available.
> sorry - can't see that message on my reader? What do you think is unlikly?
> Simon.

I knew that would flush you out of the bushes . Here is a quote from my
post dated 7/3/2003, 5:20 A.M.:

....When you say it will be on the website in a "couple of days", how long
is that really? I don't even see a mention of it in the news section on
the website, so it seems that "a couple of days" is a pretty small time
frame for something that has only gotten a mention in a newsgroup but not
on the official site. I hope it is a couple of days (only), though...

Guess I only pointed out one reason, not several. Sorry.
I'm sure the other reasons I was thinking about but failed to write down in
my post were these:

1. Boy, that sure is coincidental that I'm looking at buying Vdisk, and a
"guy" on a newsgroup tells me a new version will be out in a couple of
days, but I can't confirm it anywhere else;

2. Yea, that's what they all say...how many times have we heard about the
promised upgrades that never appear. For you fans of malware detectors,
Diamond CS has been promising free upgrades to version 4 of TDS3 on it's
website for over a year; still no version 4 (TDS3 is great, don't get me
wrong).

Well, you get the point/joke. I guess I'm just too jaded.

I also asked in that post about the upgrade rights if I were to purchase v
1.xx of Vdisk. I recently got burned on a software purchase for which an
unannounced major upgrade was released 3 days later, and I would have to
pay full price again to get the new version. I've got my credit card out
waiting to be fired up, so let me know.

Thank you, Simon.

Vdiskker

> Well, you get the point/joke. I guess I'm just too jaded.
>
> I also asked in that post about the upgrade rights if I were to purchase v
> 1.xx of Vdisk. I recently got burned on a software purchase for which an
> unannounced major upgrade was released 3 days later, and I would have to
> pay full price again to get the new version. I've got my credit card out
> waiting to be fired up, so let me know.
>

I never thought of charging for an upgrade seriously, the changes are
small enough that your current licence file will work.

I'm still waiting for marketing to action the changes to the web site.
Download the free 30day v1.0.6 and upgrade it to v2 when it appears.

Simon.

Simon Hunt

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 16:14:32 +0100, Simon Hunt wrote:

<snip>
> I never thought of charging for an upgrade seriously, the changes are
> small enough that your current licence file will work.
>
> I'm still waiting for marketing to action the changes to the web site.
> Download the free 30day v1.0.6 and upgrade it to v2 when it appears.
>
> Simon.

Thank you. Will do.

Vdiskker

Well, it's on the web site as of this morning.

enjoy all!

Simon.
"Vdiskker" <***@*.net> wrote in message
news:z2sqg5rnqux5$....
> On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 16:14:32 +0100, Simon Hunt wrote:
>
> <snip>
> > I never thought of charging for an upgrade seriously, the changes
are
> > small enough that your current licence file will work.
> >
> > I'm still waiting for marketing to action the changes to the web site.
> > Download the free 30day v1.0.6 and upgrade it to v2 when it appears.
> >
> > Simon.
>
> Thank you. Will do.

Simon Hunt

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 12:09:40 +0100, Simon Hunt wrote:

> Well, it's on the web site as of this morning.
>
> enjoy all!

I'm downloading right now.

Thanks.

Vdiskker