a hard drive or USB stick), including the drive your Operating System boots from.īy default, VeraCrypt encrypts all data stored in a volume with an AES-256 cipher, although when creating a volume you can specify an alternative cipher. Or it can even be used to encrypt an entire disk partition or storage device (e.g. It allows you to create a virtual encrypted disk (volume) which you can mount and use just like a real disk. In fact, VeraCrypt is still under active developmentĪs such, VeraCrypt is widely regarded in the security world as the go-to open-source full-disk encryption program. Its code has been fully audited, and the uncovered problems fixed. Its front-end looks the same and functions identically to TrueCrypt.

VeraCrypt is a fork of TrueCrypt and its direct successor – so don't be put off by the minor branding changes. Third-party Android and iOS apps allow you to open and access data stored VeraCrypt containers. Most of these options use the industry-standard AES cipher – and if you're interested in learning more about how AES encryption works, we've got a guide for that! VeraCrypt We've listed the best TrueCrypt alternatives below. So, simply being able to audit the code is the surest guarantee possible that any encryption program is secure. This isn't a foolproof tactic, however, as code can always be changed the moment the auditors leave the building. Of course, we can place even more confidence in a program that's been audited by a reputable third-party. Only if a program can be freely examined to ensure it does what it is supposed to (and only what it is supposed to) can we place a reasonable amount of confidence in it. Open-source code is the only guarantee we have against this kind of nefarious behavior. This is what's known as end-to-end-encryption (E2EE).īut even if you're using E2EE, how do you know that your encryption software isn't up to something untoward – like secretly sending your encryption keys to its developers, or creating a backdoor in its encryption?

Anyone serious about their digital security should look into encrypting their own data, rather than relying on a third-party to do it for them.

Truecrypt alternative lifehacker