PGP Whole Disk Encryption Quick Start Guide

PGP Whole Disk Encryption for Windows

What is PGP Whole Disk Encryption?

The PGP Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) product is a software tool that provides multiple ways to protect your data on desktops, laptops, and removable drives.

Use PGP WDE to do the following:

y Lock down the entire contents of your system, or an

external or USB flash drive you specify.

y Use part of your hard drive space as an encrypted virtual

disk volume with its own drive letter.

y Create secure, encrypted Zip archives. y Put files and folders into a single encrypted, compressed

package that can be opened on Windows systems that do not have PGP Desktop Email or PGP Desktop installed.

y Completely destroy files and folders so that even file

recovery software cannot recover them.

y Securely erase free space on your drives so that your

deleted data is truly unrecoverable.

Contents

y What is PGP Whole Disk Encryption? (page 1) y New to PGP Whole Disk Encryption? (page 1) y Understanding the Basics (page 1) y What Am I Installing? (page 2) y System Requirements (page 2) y Installing PGP Whole Disk Encryption (page 2) y Starting PGP Whole Disk Encryption (page 3) y The PGP Whole Disk Encryption Main Screen (page 3) y Using PGP WDE to Encrypt a Drive (page 3) y Creating PGP Virtual Disk Volumes (page 9, page 6) y Creating a PGP Zip Archive (page 6) y Using PGP Shred to Shred Files (page 7) y Getting Assistance (page 8)

Quick Start Guide

Version 10.1

Note: A PGP Whole Disk Encryption license provides you

with access to a certain set of PGP Whole Disk Encryption features. Certain other features of PGP Whole Disk Encryption may require a different license. For more information, see the Licensing section of the PGP Desktop User’s Guide.

y For deployment, management, and policy enforcement

information for PGP Whole Disk Encryption, see the PGP Universal Server Administrator’s Guide.

Understanding the Basics

PGP Whole Disk Encryption uses keys to encrypt, sign, decrypt, and verify your messages.

After installation, PGP Whole Disk Encryption prompts you to create a PGP keypair. A keypair is the combination of a private key and a public key.

y Keep your private key and its passphrase private, as the

name suggests. If someone gets your private key and its passphrase, they can read your messages and impersonate you to others. Your private key decrypts incoming encrypted messages and signs outgoing messages.

y Your public key you can give to everyone. It does not have

a passphrase. Your public key encrypts messages that only your private key can decrypt and verifies your signed messages.

Your keyring holds both your keypairs and the public keys of others, which you use to send encrypted messages to them. Click the PGP Keys Control Box to see the keys on your keyring:

1. The icon for a PGP keypair has two keys, denoting the

private and the public key. Alice Cameron has a PGP keypair in this illustration, for example.

2. The icons for the public keys of others have just one key.

Ming Pa’s public key, for example, has been added to the keyring shown in this illustration.

New to PGP Whole Disk Encryption?

Use this step-by-step guide to get started. You will find that, with PGP Whole Disk Encryption, protecting your data will be as easy as turning a key in a lock.

y This Quick Start Guide helps you install PGP Whole Disk

Encryption and get started.

y The PGP Desktop User’s Guide provides more detailed

information on PGP Whole Disk Encryption. In it, you will learn what a keypair is, why you might want to create one, how to create one, and how to exchange keys with others

so you can encrypt your own data and share data securely with others.

What Am I Installing?

PGP Whole Disk Encryption uses licensing to provide access to the features you purchase. Depending on the license you have, some or all of the PGP Whole Disk Encryption family of applications will be active.

This document contains instructions for viewing the features activated by your license.

PGP Whole Disk Encryption (PGP WDE)

PGP Desktop family of applications. You can use PGP WDE to lock down the entire contents of your system or an external or USB flash drive you specify. Boot sectors, system files, and swap files are all encrypted. Whole disk encrypting your boot drive means you do not have to worry if your computer is lost or stolen: to access your data, an attacker would need the appropriate passphrase. If you have encrypted a USB device, you can share data on that device with other PGP Whole Disk Encryption for Windows or Mac OS X users.

PGP Virtual Disk volumes uses part of your hard drive space as an encrypted virtual disk volume with its own drive letter. A PGP Virtual Disk is the perfect place for storing your sensitive files; it is as if you have stored them in a safe. When the door of the safe is open (when the volume is mounted), you can change files stored in it, take files out of it, and move files into it. Otherwise (when the volume is unmounted), all the data on the volume is protected.

PGP Zip adds any combination of files and folders to an encrypted, compressed, portable archive. PGP Desktop must be installed on a system to create or open a PGP Zip archive. PGP Zip is a tool for securely archiving your sensitive data, whether you want to distribute it to others or back it up.

PGP Shredder completely destroys files and folders so that even file recovery software cannot recover them. Deleting a file using the Windows Recycle Bin (on Windows systems) or Trash (on Mac OS X systems) does not actually delete it; it sits on your drive and eventually gets overwritten. Until then, it is trivial for an attacker to recover that file. PGP Shredder, in contrast, immediately overwrites files multiple times. This is so effective that even sophisticated disk recovery software cannot recover these files. This feature also completely wipes free space on your drives so your deleted data is truly unrecoverable.

Key Management manages PGP keys, both your keypairs and the public keys of others. You use your private key to decrypt messages sent to you encrypted to your public key and to secure your PGP Virtual Disk volumes. You use public keys to encrypt messages to others or to add users to PGP Virtual Disk volumes.

is a member of the

y Windows XP Professional 32-bit (Service Pack 2 or 3),

Windows XP Professional 64-bit (Service Pack 2), Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2 or 3), Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, Windows Vista (all 32- and 64-bit editions, including Service Pack 1 and 2), Windows 7 (all 32- and 64-bit editions), Windows Server 2003 (Service Pack 1 and 2).

Note: The above operating systems are supported only

when all of the latest hot fixes and security patches from Microsoft have been applied.

PGP Whole Disk Encryption on Windows Servers

PGP Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) is supported on all client versions above as well as the following Windows Server versions:

y Windows Server 2003 SP 2 (32- and 64-bit editions);

Windows Server 2008 SP 1 and 2 (32- and 64-bit editions); Windows Server 2008 R2 (32- and 64-bit editions)

For additional system requirements and best practices information on using PGP WDE on Windows Server systems, see PGP KB article 1737 (

http://support.pgp.com/?faq=1737).

PGP Whole Disk Encryption on Tablet PCs

PGP Whole Disk Encryption is supported on Tablet PCs that meet the following additional requirements:

y Dell Latitude XT1 and XT2 Tablet PC Touch Screen

Laptops (undocked)

y 1024 x 768 x 16 screen display running SVGA mode

Optional physical keyboard

Hardware Requirements

y 512 MB of RAM y 64 MB hard disk space

Installing PGP Whole Disk Encryption

PGP Corporation recommends exiting all open applications before you begin the install. The installation process requires a system restart.

Note: If you are using PGP Whole Disk Encryption in a PGP

Universal Server-managed environment, your PGP Whole Disk Encryption installer may be configured with specific features and/or settings.

System Requirements

PGP Whole Disk Encryption can be installed on systems running the following versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems:

¾ To install PGP Whole Disk Encryption

1. Locate the PGP Whole Disk Encryption installation

program you downloaded.

The installer program may have been distributed by your PGP administrator using the Microsoft SMS deployment tool.

2. Double-click the installer.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions.

4. Reboot your system when instructed.

5. When your system restarts, follow the on-screen

instructions to configure PGP Whole Disk Encryption.

Licensing

The PGP Whole Disk Encryption main screen includes:

The Menu bar. Gives you access to PGP Whole Disk

Encryption commands. The menus on the Menu bar change depending on which Control box is selected.

The PGP Keys Control Box. Gives you control of PGP

keys.

The PGP Messaging Control Box. Gives you control

over PGP Messaging.

To see what features your license supports, open PGP Whole Disk Encryption and select Help > License. Those features with a checkmark are supported by the active license.

Starting PGP Whole Disk Encryption

To start PGP Whole Disk Encryption, use any of the following methods:

y Double-click the PGP Tray icon.

y Right-click the PGP Tray icon and then select

Whole Disk Encryption.

y From the Start menu, select Programs > PGP > PGP

Whole Disk Encryption.

The PGP Whole Disk Encryption Main Screen

The PGP Whole Disk Encryption application window is your main interface to the product.

Open PGP

The PGP Zip Control Box. Gives you control of PGP

Zip, as well as the PGP Zip Assistant, which helps you create new PGP Zip archives.

The PGP Disk Control Box. Gives you control of PGP

Disk.

The PGP Viewer Control Box. Gives you the ability to

decrypt, verify, and display messages outside the mail stream.

The PGP NetShare Control Box. Gives you control of

PGP NetShare.

The PGP Whole Disk Encryption Work area. Displays

information and actions you can take for the selected Control box.

PGP Keys Find box. Use to search for keys on your

keyring. As you type text in this box, PGP Whole Disk Encryption displays search results based on either name or email address.

Each Control box expands to show available options, and collapses to save space (only the Control Box’s banner displays). Expand a Control Box by clicking its banner.

Using PGP WDE to Encrypt a Drive

The PGP WDE feature locks down the entire contents of your system or an external or USB flash drive you specify.

The encryption algorithm used by PGP WDE is AES256. The hashing algorithm is SHA-1. FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS formatted drives are supported. There is no minimum or maximum size. If the drive is supported by the operating system (or your hardware BIOS for the boot drive), it should work with PGP WDE.

Caution: PGP Corporation recommends, as a best practice,

that you back up your data before encrypting your disk.

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