-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear John,
encrypted disks are completely transparent once the system is up and running. The only issue will be a slow-down for disk I/O intense operations, e.g. copying a large amount of data takes noticably longer on an encrypted disk - but not too much longer, especially with a fast machine. You might want to keep a separate local partition e.g. for data parallel integration (XDS). Other than that your worries are indeed completely misplaced since as user you only see and notice the unencrypted files and when you send data to colleagues, you send them unencrypted. Cheers, Tim On 08/17/2011 09:13 PM, 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 > - -- - -- Dr Tim Gruene Institut fuer anorganische Chemie Tammannstr. 4 D-37077 Goettingen GPG Key ID = A46BEE1A -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iD8DBQFOTL2ZUxlJ7aRr7hoRAifHAKDrHShwwtDdC3ANKzdlT7DuQ/tN9wCeJM/x mwWNdk4dxGKW7OjymMgT3+c= =bISG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
