Why is the use of PGP Whole Disk Encryption important?
The Harvard University enterprise security policy specifies that disk encryption must be used to secure data. In particular, laptops and other mobile devices are at higher risk than desktops and should be secured first. http://www.security.harvard.edu/tech_security/transporting.php The use of PGP Whole Disk Encryption does not authorize users to handle confidential data in a fashion inconsistent with the security policy. At no point should confidential data be present on any device such as a laptop, desktop, portable disk drive or USB thumbdrive regardless of encryption. In the event of loss or theft of a computer while a computer is shutdown, drive encryption will protect against the loss of data. What does PGP Whole Disk Encryption do? PGP Whole Disk Encryption protects against data theft while the computer is powered off. It transparently locks down the entire contents of a laptop or desktop drive ensuring that while shutdown the data stored on those systems cannot be exposed to any
