Hi John
My Mac laptop has been encrypted according to MRC rules for several
years and has caused no problems. Windows or Linux may behave
differently, but I have no reason to think they might (until a
ccp4bber tells me differently)!
On 17 Aug 2011, at 20:13, Jrh wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
My institution is introducing concerted measures for improved
security via encryption of files. A laudable plan in case of loss or
theft of a computer with official files eg exams or student records
type of information stored on it.
Files, folders or a whole disk drive can be encrypted. Whilst I can
target specific files, this could get messy and time consuming to
target them and keep track of new to-be-encrypted files. It is
tempting therefore to agree to complete encryption. However, as my
laptop is my calculations' workbench, as well as office tasks, I am
concerned that unexpected runtime errors may occur from encryption
and there may be difficulties of transferability of data files to
colleagues and students, and to eg PDB.
Does anyone have experience of encryption? Are my anxieties
misplaced? If not, will I need to plan to separate office files,
which could then all be encrypted, from crystallographic data files/
calculations, which could be left unencrypted. If separate treatment
is the best plan does one need two computers once more, rather than
the one laptop? A different solution would be to try to insist on an
institutional repository keeping such files.
In anticipation,
Thankyou,
John
Prof John R Helliwell DSc
Harry
--
Dr Harry Powell, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, MRC Centre,
Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QH
