Private Disk
Encyclopedia
Overview
Private Disk is a disk encryptionDisk encryption
Disk encryption is a special case of data at rest protection when the storage media is a sector-addressable device . This article presents cryptographic aspects of the problem...
application for the Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
, developed by Dekart SRL. It works by creating a virtual drive, the contents of which is encrypted on-the-fly
OTFE
On-the-fly encryption , also known as Real-time Encryption, is a method used by some encryption programs, for example, disk encryption software...
; other software can use the drive as if it were a usual one.
One of Private Disk's key selling points is in its ease of use, which is achieved by hiding complexity from the end user (e.g. data wiping is applied transparently when an encrypted image is deleted.) This simplicity does however reduce its flexibility in some respects (e.g. it only allows the use of AES-256 encryption.)
Although Private Disk uses a NIST certified implementation of the AES and SHA-256/384/512 algorithms, this certification is restricted to a single component of Private Disk; the encryption/hash library used
, and not to Private Disk as a complete system.
Feature highlights
- NIST-certified implementation of AES-256Advanced Encryption StandardAdvanced Encryption Standard is a specification for the encryption of electronic data. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. It supersedes DES...
-bit, and SHA-2SHA-2In cryptography, SHA-2 is a set of cryptographic hash functions designed by the National Security Agency and published in 2001 by the NIST as a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard. SHA stands for Secure Hash Algorithm. SHA-2 includes a significant number of changes from its predecessor,...
. Private Disk complies with FIPSFederal Information Processing StandardA Federal Information Processing Standard is a publicly announced standardization developed by the United States federal government for use in computer systems by all non-military government agencies and by government contractors, when properly invoked and tailored on a contract...
197 and FIPSFederal Information Processing StandardA Federal Information Processing Standard is a publicly announced standardization developed by the United States federal government for use in computer systems by all non-military government agencies and by government contractors, when properly invoked and tailored on a contract...
180-2 - Disk Firewall, an application-level filter, which allows only trusted programs to access the virtual drive
- Ability to run directly from a removable drive, requiring no local installation
- Offers access to encrypted data on any system, even if administrative privileges are not available
- Encrypted images can be accessed on Windows Mobile and Windows CE handhelds; this is achieved by making the encrypted container format compatible with containers used by SecuBox (disk encryption software by Aiko Solutions)
- File wipingData remanenceData remanence is the residual representation of data that remains even after attempts have been made to remove or erase the data. This residue may result from data being left intact by a nominal file deletion operation, by reformatting of storage media that does not remove data previously written...
is applied when deleting an encrypted image - PD File Move, a file migration tool, which will locate the specified files on the system and securely move them to an encrypted disk
- Compatibility with Windows 9xWindows 9xWindows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced since 1995, which were based on the original and later modified Windows 95 kernel...
and Windows NTWindows NTWindows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
-based operating systems (including Windows VistaWindows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Windows Seven) - Autorun and Autofinish automatically start a program or a script when a virtual disk is mounted or dismounted
- Encrypted backup of an encrypted image
- Password quality meter
- Automatic backup of a disk's encryption key
- Built-in password recovery tool
- Compatibility with 64-bit64-bit64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
platforms
Existing versions
There are multiple versions of Private Disk, which provide a different feature set:- Private Disk - hard disk encryption software that uses 256-bit AES encryption, is highly configurable, offers application-level protection, USB disk portability, etc.
- Private Disk Multifactor is a superset of Private Disk, providing the same functionality, adding support for biometric authentication, as well as smart-card or token-based authentication.
- Private Disk Light is a free version, it uses AES-128 and comes with a restricted set of features.
- Private Disk SDK is a software development kitSoftware development kitA software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
that can be used to build a custom application which provides data encryption facilities.