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According to researchers at the University of Washington, PC users using encryption software to keep part of a computer’s hard drive private, may be fooling themselves.
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The researchers discovered that programs like Word and Google Desktop automatically store data on the unencrypted sections of a computer’s hard drive, “even when these same programs are using encrypted files”.
However the researchers also found that those using full-disk encryption, where every piece of data on their hard drive is encrypted, do not have to worry, but when users create an encrypted partition or virtual disk on their hard drives, leaving part of the drives unencrypted, or even when they store data on encrypted USB devices, the situation is different.
Although there is no hard evidence that shows how much data can be recovered from a partially encrypted disk, the researchers say that they “were able to recover copies of most of the Word documents created for their experiment from the software’s auto-recovery folder, even though the documents themselves were being saved to an encrypted part of the disk”.
With Google Desktop, the researchers say they “were able to read snapshots of encrypted files when the program’s Enhanced Search option was enabled”.
Perhaps this should be called a Claytons Encryption, as it seems it seems encypting part of a hard drive or creating a virtual disk is quite prone to data laeakage.
