PGP Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) software is now ready for installation by those who purchased licenses last winter. In December 2008, K-State departments combined to make a bulk purchase of 1,012 PGP WDE licenses at a steeply discounted price for both Windows and Mac computers to provide another layer of protection for confidential information. Given the propensity for laptops to get stolen, whole disk encryption is a critical tool for protecting data stored on laptops. This product can also encrypt hard drives in desktop computers that store confidential data, as required by K-State policy.
Technical contacts in the departments that purchased licenses were contacted within the last week with installation instructions. More information about this important project, including an FAQ, is available on K-State’s PGP website. If you did not receive the e-mail with installation instructions and you believe you should have, contact Harvard Townsend right away (harv@k-state.edu, 785-532-2985).
Other useful security features provided with PGP WDE include the ability to:
- Encrypt data on a USB flash drive or external USB hard drive
- Create an encrypted ZIP file to safely send sensitive files via e-mail
- Securely delete files from your hard drive with “PGP Shredder” to eliminate the possibility that the file can be recovered later
- Overwrite all the free space on the hard drive with random data to prevent recovery of remnants of old files and data
Because of an order cancellation, five additional licenses of PGP are available to any campus department on a first-come-first-serve basis for $32 per license (the normal price is at least three times that amount). If interested, contact Josh McCune (mccunej@k-state.edu, 785-532-2598).
