Encrypting files

[john 86]

I have encrypted some files of bank details etc and pulled these on the IBM secure drive of my T60. I want to be able to back these up to a remote hard drive and also burn them on CD./DVD.
I would need to be able to recover these files, possibly on a non IBM computer, in the event that the computer is stolen or broken .
If I back up my IBM "secure drive" will I be able to open this in the future ? (Using the Windows password). If not can I use the Windows encryption feature as an alternative program to be able to back up the files and still be able to retrieve them later. If neither of these two methods is suitable can anyone suggest an alternative program, preferably freeware, that I could used to do this.
Thanks John

[yossarian]

By secure drive do you mean SafeGuard PrivateDisk that comes with the Client Security Suite?

If you want to guarantee portability, I'd recommend looking into sometihng like PGP. www.pgp.com or alternatively
www.gnupg.org for a free version

[KF9YR]

I'll second the suggestion and also recommend GnuPG if you need freeware.

Don't forget to export the secret and public keyring to your backup drive or you won't be able to decrypt if something happens to your primary computer.

[vital-analitix]

I am using TrueCrypt (open source) from www.truecrypt.org

The nice thing about this is that you do not need to install the software if you do not want. You can also run the plain executable file and that can be done from CD if needed.

I believe there is also a LINUX version which means that theoretically you can use another operating system to get at the data.

(Initially I was using a commercial system but needed to renew the license to get updates. In addition it was not as handy as this)

Marinus

[john 86]

Thanks for all the replies
Cheers John

[Puppy]

Use NTFS encryption. No other software needed. Just don't forget to backup generated private key

[davidspalding]

I noted in my CSS that the certificate to open up the SafeDisk volume is my Window login id. Now this may not just be user/password, but a specific token. And if the hard drive crashes, and the SafeDisk is opened on a new computer with the same username/password, I'm not confident it would.

... In which case I would back up the CONTENTS of the encrypted volume with a program that supports using a password (Windows does, Norton Ghost does I think), and keep the password secure in a fire box.