by Lime Blue Cube

Created on: August 05, 2008   Last Updated: August 07, 2008

We all have our secrets. And as we moved forward to the digital era, our secrets came with us. There are serious secrets, like personal financial data and credit card numbers, as well as more personal secrets, such as any love notes you may have from your high-school sweetheart, or your favourite poem or anything else that you'd rather not let the rest of the world know.

But we as a society have advanced far beyond stashing our secrets under our mattresses, or inside our closets, or our other personal hiding spaces. Many of our secrets do not take up any actual space at all, they are files stored in our computers, on discs, in USB sticks, or whatever digital storage medium you prefer. And, as with that love note you hid under your mattress, so many years ago, and your little brother wanted to know what you were hiding, there are people who would try and examine your digital secrets as well.

You may think that since it's your computer, and nobody else knows your password that your secrets are safe, bud sadly, with all the hyper-advanced technology we have access to, almost anyone can get into your files remotely and peruse them at will.

For those of you who wish to keep your digital secrets safe, there is TrueCrypt. This is an encryption software that lets you hide your secrets even more securely than just putting them in some obscure place. You may think that encryption software is only for hackers, but that's exactly what is protects against.

Simply open up your favourite web browser and go to www.truecrypt.org. There should be a blue navigation bar at the top of your screen, and you should navigate to the downloads tab. Below, you will be presented with a number of different operating systems, and configurations for your download. To finish up, simply click the "download," button and install truecrypt. I would keep truecrypt off your dock/desktop/dock so as to not make it obvious you're trying to hide something.

When you are ready to start encrypting, open up Truecrypt. On the main screen, click the Create Volume button. Since this is your first time using this software, you'll want to select file container, and the Standard Truecrypt volume."

You will now be allowed to set up the location and name of your encrypted drive. An important thing to notice is that Truecrypt does NOT recognize file extensions, so you can make a .html file, that looks like it should open with a web browser, but doesn't, because it's actually an encrypted drive. What I like to do is to make an .mp3 file, with a name similar to a song I already have, and store it in my music library. For example, One of my favourite songs is "Beat the Drum," by Great Big Sea, and although they have released several live recordings, (all of which are in the music folder) none of them have had a recording of Beat the Drum, so my truecrypt volume is named "Beat the Drum (Live).mp3" a file which shouldn't exist, so I always know what my drive is.

After you've continued setting up your drive, selecting a size, etc, and setting a password you're ready to start encrypting your files. NOTE: Write your password down physically, so that you remember it, but anyone who finds it doesn't know what it goes to.

After mounting your drive, it should appear as though you just inserted a USB stick or other hard drive, and you can move files to it like any other storage volume. When done simply eject the volume, and your files are safe.

Whenever you need to re-access your files, open up Truecrypt and mount your drive, and your files will be there for you to access.

Truecrypt truly lets you rest easy knowing your digital secrets are as safe as that note beneath your mattress.

have fun, and happy secret keeping!

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