Nowadays, the using of  portable storage devices such as USB Flash Drive or portable hard drive become so popular, particularly for keeping office file or data. But, do you aware of the lack of security of your private and confidential data while keeping them with a portable storage device ? If you do, you should assure to secure it using a reliable tool, like TrueCrypt.

What is TrueCrypt ? TrueCrypt is a freeware application used for transparent real-time on the fly encryption. On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file, or a device-hosted encrypted volume on either an individual partition or an entire storage device.

Based on its official website (www.truecrypt.org), TrueCrypt is a free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux with the main features as follows :

• creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk
• encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive
• encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication)
• encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent
• provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case and adversary forces you to reveal the password : (1) Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system, and (2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volume cannot be distinguished from random data)
• encryption algorithms : AES-256, Serpent and Twofish. Mode of operation : XTS.

This software is highly recommended for securing data on a portable storage device or laptop.

Read the PC World Editor's Review of this software :

The best things in life are free, and Truecrypt may be one of them. When you encrypt files on your hard disk, not only do you want to scramble the files, but sometimes you want to prevent others from discovering that the files even exist, a sleight-of-hand known as steganography. Not only does Truecrypt use strong encryption when it creates encrypted volumes (including 256-bit AES and 448-bit Blowfish), it also creates hidden volumes that are indistinguishable from random data.

If you take the time to learn how to use Truecrypt's steganographic features, the program will do a great job of protecting your data from snoops.

Note: This program is donationware. It is free to try, but the author accepts and encourages donations towards further development.

--Scott Spanbauer

And also CNET Download.com's review in here : Review of TrueCrypt 6.0 (CNET Download.com)

Download the latest stable version of this software in here : Download TrueCrypt v6.0a