seNTry 2020

Professional disk encryption software for Windows NT

Protecting your disk subsystems is as important as protecting your OS andnetwork. If you don't protect these systems, they become vulnerable to theft,security breaches, and program abuses. Soft Winter's seNTry 2020 protects yourWindows NT disk subsystems.

Installation
I installed seNTry 2020, NT Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 3 (SP3), andthe latest hotfixes on a 200MHz Pentium processor with 32MB of RAM and a 1GB IDEhard disk. I installed the software quickly and easily by choosing aninstallation directory and clicking OK. After I opened the seNTry 2020administrative program, I created my first encrypted volume.

Encryption
Creating the encrypted volume was easy and straightforward. When I clickedFile, New, the New dialog box appeared. Screen 1 shows this dialog box. Ientered passphrase-protected master key and data (volume) file locations, apassword, an encryption algorithm, a drive letter, an inactivity timeout limit,and a volume size.

Make sure you safeguard your passphrase-protected master key file againstunwanted access. Consider storing your master key file on a 3.5" disk or aCD-ROM. By doing so, you can secure the master key file in a safe place when you're not using it.

Selecting a password is an important part of using this software. When youchoose a password, try to use a combination of upper- and lowercase letters,numbers, and symbols (e.g., question mark, exclamation point).

Selecting encryption algorithms isn't as easy as selecting passwords,unless you're familiar with these algorithms. I chose the default algorithm(Message Digest Cipher­MDC­based on Secure Hash Standard­SHS)because it has the longest password key (1024 bits) and the largest data block(160 bits)--­the maximum protection seNTry 2020 provides. I used drive Bbecause I have only one 3.5" drive using that letter. Using drive B lets meeasily navigate NT Explorer because I don't have to scroll down to locate thedrive in the drive list.

The timeout parameter determines how long (in minutes) the system willremain idle before the software automatically dismounts the drive. This featureprovides additional protection because it automatically makes the 470 drive unavailable until a user reenters the password.

After I typed these parameters in the dialog box, I clicked OK, andseNTry 2020 created the volume on the disk. When I tried to mount the disk, I received a prompt to format the volume. The dialog box in Screen 2 lists the formatting options. When you mount a drive, you make the driveavailable as a drive letter on the system. When you dismount a drive, you renderthe drive unavailable. I can access a volume that seNTry 2020 has formatted andmounted as easily as I can access any other drive on my system.

After I encrypted the volume, I focused on the system's performance--­encryption algorithms can take a serious toll on the processor. I copied severallarge text files and .mpg music files onto my encrypted volume and tested theaccess time. I didn't run formal benchmark tests against the encrypted volume,but I noticed that my workstation (which was running Microsoft Word 98 only)didn't experience significant drops in performance. If you use seNTry 2020 onsystems under heavy load, they will experience a noticeable lag at some point.However, increasing the security of information on your system is worth aneventual decrease in system performance.

Features and Functionality
An encryption system is only as good as the algorithms it uses. Thissoft ware supports seven algorithms: Blowfish, Cast, MDC (which includesSecure Hash Algorithm--­SHA, SHA-1, and RACE Integrity PrimitivesEvaluation Message Digest--­RIPEMD), Data Encryption Standard (DES), TripleDES, Square, and Safer. (The Electronic Frontier Foundation--­EFF--­recentlybroke a 56-bit DES key, a key often used in NT communications, inonly 3 days--­ that's not exactly what I call secure encryption. Fordetails on that event, visit EEF's Web site at http://www.eff.org/descracker.)

With seNTry 2020, you can create encrypted volumes using FAT or NTFS. Thesoftware supports all NT disk types and features, including C2 security
specifications, fault tolerance, disk mirroring, stripe sets, and NT backups. Toincrease protection against data corruption, seNTry 2020 can mark an entirevolume as read-only.

You can use seNTry 2020 to install drivers and services on your computer.When a user creates an encrypted volume using the software'sadministrative utility, seNTry 2020 places that volume inside an encrypted file,lets the user assign a drive letter, and formats the volume using FAT orNTFS. The software creates a large file on your disk drive of a size youdefine and uses this file as a disk volume. The product is similar tocompression programs such as the old Stacker software for DOS-basedsystems. These compression programs also created files that mapped out as driveson the system.

You can use seNTry 2020 across a network. If you install the software onyour workstations and network file servers, all your workstations can access theencrypted volumes you create.

The Bottom Line
You can use seNTry 2020 to enhance the security of your system. Thesoftware installs quickly and easily, and the day-to-day management of theencrypted disk drives you create is no different from the management of anyother disk drive. I wouldn't mind seeing a DEC Alpha version in the nearfuture. If the information you store on your systems requires additionalprotection, consider seNTry 2020. You'll like the software's functionality andflexibility.