Zonealarm Datalock – laptop data security

[suz5cam]

I am thinking about getting Zonealarm’s DataLock data encryption software. Basically I think that for laptops, it is a good way to make sure that if it gets stolen or I lose it (the reality is more like forget it) that nobody can access my data. It seems to run in the back ground so that you don’t know it is actually running.

http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-data-lock.htm

They say that it uses a pre-boot authentication in which users must provide the correct username and password before the operating system boot process will even begin. They also have a 24/7 password recovery service incase you forget your password.

A couple of questions:


1) Is this pre-boot authentication something that will help keep the data secure?
2) What kind of encryption is used?
3) How hard will DataLock make getting the data from my hard drive?

[Expeto]

To be honest I never used zonealarm nor I know a lot about it but;

1)Pre-boot auth means, first thing you do after opening your computer is writing your password to authenticate yourself. Only if you auth yourself your data will be unlocked. Which means most of your system will be encrypted. This is not a zonealarm thingy, a lot of other software offers the same thing

2) 256-bit AES. Lots of other software is capable of doing this too

3) Depends mostly on your choices, but no random thug can unlock it. How sensitive is your information?

I advice you to save some money, and use truecrypt( http://www.truecrypt.org/ ). Truecrypt is strong, it can do everything zonealarm can do, its effective and opensource(more free than free). But I warn you, if you forgot your password your data is gone for good. It has no back doors!