Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages that no one except the intended recipient knows is there. This is in contrast to cryptography, where an interloper can see the message is there, but the hope is that they can’t crack it and read it.
Lifehacker has some excellent tips on this arcane privacy art:
Remember those invisible ink kits from when you were a kid? You’d write a secret message that no one could see unless they had a black light or the decoder marker. The digital equivalent of invisible ink is steganography software, apps that embed files and data inside other files, hidden from everyone who doesn’t know any better.
Check out the excellent tips Lifehacker offers with the post Hide Data in Files with Easy Steganography Tools.
The cost to encrypt data on the average laptop is about $40, and is likely even less for you.
The value of the data on your laptop to a thief could be much more than you might imagine.
From the Privacy and Law Blog:
81% of U.S. businesses surveyed this year reported that, in the previous 12 months, at least one of their laptops or other portable electronic devices had been lost or stolen. U.S. Survey: Confidential Data at Risk, 5 Privacy & Security Law Report 1162 (2006). When a laptop is lost or stolen, unencrypted data on the computer can easily be accessed. Even if a user name and password are needed to sign on to the laptop, the hard drive can be removed in a few seconds and all data on the hard drive can be copied to another computer or to a storage device in minutes.
Despite the high risk sensitive data may be obtained from lost or stolen laptops, many businesses continue to allow employees to store such information on laptops and to take the laptops home, on business trips, and on vacations. Business managers should consider whether their current laptop security practices are sufficient. If a business’ trade secrets, attorney-client privileged information, customer lists, or financial information are obtained from a lost or stolen laptop, affected shareholders, employees, or business partners may argue that the business failed to take adequate steps to safeguard the data.
Failing to encrypt data on a mobile device “borders on negligence†according to Avivah Litan of the Gartner Group.
I agree.
Information is the gold of the new millennium. If you feel your business intelligence is not worth guarding, do you really have a valuable business?