As usual, the Free/Open Source software world provides the best security utilities for Windows, and for Linux and Mac as well. Eric Geier rounds up four encryption utilities for both local and network storage.
Though disk encryption has been around for many years, many of us don't take advantage of it. The basic concept is that your documents, files, and data are scrambled until you provide a password to unlock them. Therefore if your PC or laptop is stolen, the thief won't be able to read your data, protecting any sensitive information you might be storing.

Let's take a look at four different open source disk encryption projects that might be able to help you secure your data. Don't let Microsoft trick you into buying the expensive Enterprise or Ultimate editions of Windows to get their disk encryption feature, called BitLocker. These open source utilities can give you protection in Windows (and sometimes Linux and Mac OS X) for free.

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