From: andrew fabbro <afabbro@umich.edu>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 20:09:27 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Cryptobook: State of the Art in '98?
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980224224839.14480H-100000@brokenarrow.us.itd.umich.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I finally got around to building a cryptobook, as Joel McNamara
described at

	http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/cryptbk.html

Being cool cypherpunk types, you already know that I'm referring to a
computer that has an encrypted partition, is tricked out with cryptoware,
and has been modified to prevent data leakage as much as possible (e.g.,
the OS swaps on the encrypted drive, the fact that it's a cryptobook is
somewhat concealed, etc.)

Joel's excellent article is two years old.  I'm wondering if anyone
can improve upon it, as there is at least one near-showstopper problem.
(FYI, I'm using Win95 as a platform for various reasons, mostly because
the data I'm encrypting is Win95-based and Joels' guide is Intel-based):

(*) SecureDrive is recommended as a hard drive encryption product.
Unfortunately, it's 16-bit and designed for DOS.  On my laptop, which
(as is typical) only has one hard drive controller, in order to mount
the partition in 16-bit mode, I have to turn off all 32-bit disk access,
which slows everything down a great deal, means loading a 16-bit CD-ROM
driver, etc.  Little things like animated icons also don't work -- yes,
who cares, but it suggests there are probably other side effects.

My winGeek friends don't think there is a way to mount one partition
in 16-bit mode and the other in 32-bit mode.  I'm wondering if anyone
knows of 32-bit program like SecureDrive, preferably one using IDEA,
that would be a worthwhile replacement.  (FYI, another package of the
same generation, SecureDevice, has the same problems).

(*) Anyone care to recommend anything that is not included in Joel's list?
Maybe new or better products since '96?  I'd particularly be interested
in some way of automating some of the manual things Joel proposes --
secure deletions, steganography, etc.  Sorry, I'm a UNIX geek and am
somewhat lost in Windows land...

Thanks all,




--
 Andrew Fabbro [afabbro@umich.edu] www-personal.umich.edu/~afabbro 
 "Solutions are not answers to problems." -- Richard Nixon