There are numerous ways to secure your drives to prevent your files from being stolen off your hard drive. Securing your hard drive has many uses, especially in the case that your device gets stolen. By securing your drive, it would make it very difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to access your files and information in those drives. One of the best and easiest ways to protect your drives is by using something like Bitlocker. Bitlocker works by encrypting your drive with a code; without that code, your drive will be unable to be accessed. This creates a layer of security for your drives.
Microsoft BitLocker is a built in Windows security feature that will encrypt everything on the drive that Windows is installed on. You can encrypt the entire PC or just the drives. This sort of encryption will ensure that only those with the correct encryption key will be able to decrypt and access your files and information.
However, in order to use Bitlocker there are a few requirements that must be met on your device. The main feature that must be available on your device is TPM version 1.2 or higher along with a certain operating system. Devices running the Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows 8 and 8.1, and Windows server 2008 and later all support Bitlocker. Devices also running the Pro, Enterprise, and education versions of Windows 10 also have the ability to enable Bitlocker.
If you would like to use Bitlocker, there are a series of steps to enable it. To turn on Bitlocker, users can find the option under Device Encryption in setting or under its own setting in Control Panel. If available, there should be a clear option to turn enable Bitlocker. If you enable it, Windows will prompt you for a few settings which you can fill out accordingly. First, Windows will check your TPM settings and enable it. Afterwards, it will ask you for a password and give you an option to get your recovery key. Once you have set up your password and recovery key, Windows will ask whether you would like to encrypt the whole disk or the used disk space only. Encrypting only the used disk will generally take less time, especially on new computers with nothing on them.
Once you have gone through the settings, you will need to manually restart your computer and type in the password for the first time. Remember to keep the recovery key handy in case you forget your password. After you type in your password, your computer will begin to encrypt itself. If you decide that you do not want your drive encrypted, you can turn it off in the same settings that you used to encrypt it.
The aim of BitLocker is to protect computers and drives against data breaches and intrusions. The main benefits are that it encrypts your entire drive by providing a high-level of security using the TPM module. You can set up BitLocker to automatically save keys to Active Directory. And there are no additional licensing costs, since it is a Windows feature. It also has a negligible impact on drive read performance, and no impact on drive write performance. It is also easy to set-up.
At Firestorm, we take care to give the best protection to our customers. With the help of Sophos, we automatically enable Bitlocker in order to provide the best safety against data theft. We combine the technology from firewalls and endpoint protection to provide live protection. Bitlocker helps protect your device information in case of theft. Upon restart, it will prompt the user for a code that will allow only those with the password to access the contents of the computer.