On the 5th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me…. Truecrypt!

Truecrypt is a free open-source disk encryption tool that is available on all platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux). It allows you to encrypt your laptop, desktop, USB drive or even files or folders on your computer. It can even encrypt your computer’s operating system which can keep any unwanted users out unless they know your password. Disclamier: There is NOT a backdoor to truecrypt if you lose your password you are SOL, but at least you know your data is forever safe within the encrypted container.

Ways you can use Truecrypt:

• Encrypt a USB drive, if you drop it no one can access your files and all the can do is format the drive which erases your content
• Encrypt files you put into the cloud
• Encrypt folders you send over email
• Encrypt your whole computer. If your laptop gets stolen or lost the thief will not be able to access anything or use the computer.

Features:

• Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
• Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
• Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
• Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
• Parallelization and pipelining allow data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted.
• Encryption can be hardware-accelerated on modern processors.
• Provides plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
• Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system
• More information about the features of TrueCrypt may be found in the documentation.

Screenshots:

Downloads:

• Windows: 7, Vista, XP, 2000
• Mac OSX
• Linux

Check out the 12 days of Christmas App Summary for more great apps!

Have a favorite app? Let us know in the comments!