Solved Locking down a base computer

[AJscott26]

I'm currently trying to lock down my base computer from my friends and was wondering what are the best ways ways on doing it?? When I mean locking it down I mean as far as accessing the data on the computer. I have quite a bit of computer knowledge but I'm like everyone else, I don't know it all. I currently have the BIOS password on but I know that's not enough due since they know how to remove it. I'm aware of TrueCrypt but not wanting to use it since it takes a long time to set up and crypt the whole computer. Seeing if Theres anything else that's more effective and helps protect what I have on he computer??

 

[vaidas3]

are they really your freinds if they hack your pc and you can not trust them?
if they are smart enough to remove bios password then all disk encryption with strong password is your best option
and truecrypt is good free software to do that. if you really need that you should invest some time. nothing comes free.

 

[AJscott26]

Yeah there my friends. It's mainly to keep people out so they don't mess with my stuff.Since my friend and I are in IT, we try and challenge each other .Mostly nosely people I have to worry about. I was just shown something recently about locking your computer with (swy) protection (not sure if thats shat its called) where you can't get into your computer without an flash drive that has the key copied onto the flashdrive. What it does is it asks you to plug drive (A) before Windows loads. (A is floppy it can be used as a flashdrive.) I also know that it comes prebuilt in Windows.)

 

[vaidas3]

Yeah there my friends. It's mainly to keep people out so they don't mess with my stuff.Since my friend and I are in IT, we try and challenge each other .Mostly nosely people I have to worry about. I was just shown something recently about locking your computer with (swy) protection (not sure if thats shat its called) where you can't get into your computer without an flash drive that has the key copied onto the flashdrive. What it does is it asks you to plug drive (A) before Windows loads. (A is floppy it can be used as a flashdrive.) I also know that it comes prebuilt in Windows.)

maybe youre talking about bitlocker
BitLocker Drive Encryption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
it is included with some versions of windows (windows 7 ultimate has it).
bitlocker is encryption tool so same thing as truecrypt

 

[pparks1]

Your only "real" option is to encrypt the whole hard drive. Anybody with access to the physical computer, can simply remove the hard drive, place it into another machine and pull the data from it. No BIOS passwords or other scheme short of hard drive encryption is going to resolve that issue.

Personally, I don't want to incur the performance hit from having everything encrypted, so I would suggest creating a TrueCrypt container and placing anything of importance into that. This way, the important stuff is encrypted. I mean, does it really matter if you friends can see the system files in C:\windows\system32/???

 

[windude99]

Set a strong hard drive password, then set a strong user account password, and use bitlocker. I don't think your friend can beat that.

 

[pparks1]

Remember that bitlocker is only included with the enterprise and ultimate versions of Windows 7.

 

[Wandering one]

How about low tech? External HD and take it with you?
Art.

 

[FuturDreamz]

if your computer has UEFI, mark the OS as inactive and remove and UEFI level references to the OS (or something IDK).

Then when you want to boot the os, just drop into the EFI shell and navigate and launch the winx86.efi file.

Does that make sense, or do I have no idea what I'm talking about?

 

[AJscott26]

Not a personal fan with Bitlocker. Tryed it and I mean it works but it's really not that secure.

@FuturDreamz, I have never played around wih but I will look more into that. Sounds fun.

As far as what I was talking about, Windows 7 has a built in system locker where you have to put in a floppy drive in order to get the the desktop. But instead you just change the drive of an flashdrive to drive (A) and it colts a keyfile to the flashdrive and when ever you start the computer, you have to insert the flashdrive with the keyfile in order to unlock the computer. I just can't think of what's its call

As far as TrueCrypt, I am going to run that. I do run a intel 2.8 quad core. So it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

 

[vaidas3]

Not a personal fan with Bitlocker. Tryed it and I mean it works but it's really not that secure.

@FuturDreamz, I have never played around wih but I will look more into that. Sounds fun.

As far as what I was talking about, Windows 7 has a built in system locker where you have to put in a floppy drive in order to get the the desktop. But instead you just change the drive of an flashdrive to drive (A) and it colts a keyfile to the flashdrive and when ever you start the computer, you have to insert the flashdrive with the keyfile in order to unlock the computer. I just can't think of what's its call

As far as TrueCrypt, I am going to run that. I do run a intel 2.8 quad core. So it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

if they have physical access to your pc desktop locking in windows isnt goint to help you.. be it password or flash drive doesnt matter.

 

[Trucidation]

If you just want them to not be able to use the computer, just remove the power cord and bring it along with you. Hell, remove the monitor cable.

If they're going to go so far as to removing the HDD to mount it elsewhere to get at the stuff on it, you may need to reassess those "friendships".

 

[FuturDreamz]

Maybe you can make it a raid 0 system, and simply pop out and carry one of the drives with you?

 

[pcunite]

Use software restriction policy ... very easy to setup and locks it tight.

 

[Layback Bear]

The OP doesn't have a computer problem.

 

[AJscott26]

Use software restriction policy ... very easy to setup and locks it tight.

Have to say very nice. I figured out what the name that one thing that I was talking about. What about Syskey for windows?? Currently using the flashdrive part of that.

 

[pcunite]

Use software restriction policy ... very easy to setup and locks it tight.

Have to say very nice. I figured out what the name that one thing that I was talking about. What about Syskey for windows?? Currently using the flashdrive part of that.

If when you boot from a CDROM or USB stick, and the BIOS is not passlocked, and they don't take out the drive ... you still need the contents on the disk encrypted with something like TrueCrypt. You need to anyway for physical protection ...

 

[AJscott26]

I see then I'm going to have to use some kind pad lock or something and TrueCrypt on the computer thanks people.