Best encryption device driver for MS-DOS?

Being in the consulting business, I often write prototype software for
clients in Visual Basic as proof-of-concept and also to make sure I
understand the client's needs before I accept a project.  On occasion,
I have to leave my laptop unattended on someone's desk while I go into
meetings with senior management and try to convince them that I know what
I'm talking about and that I'm worth whatever (exorbitant to them) I'm
asking to do their application for them.  I also do volunteer programming
for several volunteer organizations, and it's the same situation - unattended
laptop while I wander off and chat with management to tell them why it
will take so long to do the impossible. ;)

As you might imagine, I have a full suite of programming tools on the laptop,
including MS Office Pro and VB Pro, both of which are worth about $500
apiece - I'd sure hate to lose them to a malicious cracker, or someone who
would like a personal copy of my source code for their own use, or who just
wants to "borrow" my secret key for awhile.

What do people recommend as the solution for this?  Some sort of IDEA-based
or triple-DES-based device driver would seem to be the answer to this, but
I'm not sure which is the "best" (most reliable, fastest, easiest to set up)
one to use.  I like the sound of Michael Sattler's encryption driver for the
Mac, but alas, I'm running MS-DOS :(

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a similar driver for Linux, I'd
appreciate it - thanks!
-- 
Ed Carp, N7EKG    			Ed.Carp@linux.org, ecarp@netcom.com
801/534-8857 voicemail			801/460-1883 digital pager
Finger ecarp@netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key		an88744@anon.penet.fi
                       ** PGP encrypted email preferred! **

Cop: "How many beers have you had tonight, bro?"
Suspect: "Seventy."  -- from the TV show "Cops"

> 
> Being in the consulting business, I often write prototype software for
> clients in Visual Basic as proof-of-concept and also to make sure I
> understand the client's needs before I accept a project.  On occasion,
> I have to leave my laptop unattended on someone's desk while I go into
> meetings with senior management and try to convince them that I know what
> I'm talking about and that I'm worth whatever (exorbitant to them) I'm
> asking to do their application for them.  I also do volunteer programming
> for several volunteer organizations, and it's the same situation - unattended
> laptop while I wander off and chat with management to tell them why it
> will take so long to do the impossible. ;)
>
You leave your laptop turned on and out of your immediate reach? Geesh.
I would NEVER leave my laptop anywhere that I didn't have it in eyeshot. It
was the whole reason I got one.
 
> As you might imagine, I have a full suite of programming tools on the laptop,
> including MS Office Pro and VB Pro, both of which are worth about $500
> apiece - I'd sure hate to lose them to a malicious cracker, or someone who
> would like a personal copy of my source code for their own use, or who just
> wants to "borrow" my secret key for awhile.
>
Business must be good, you are more worried about somebody stealing a $500
dollar program than a several thousand dollar laptop?
 
> What do people recommend as the solution for this?  Some sort of IDEA-based
> or triple-DES-based device driver would seem to be the answer to this, but
> I'm not sure which is the "best" (most reliable, fastest, easiest to set up)
> one to use.  I like the sound of Michael Sattler's encryption driver for the
> Mac, but alas, I'm running MS-DOS :(
> 
Try Lo-Jak so that when your laptop goes a wanderin' you can find it....:)

> You leave your laptop turned on and out of your immediate reach? Geesh.
> I would NEVER leave my laptop anywhere that I didn't have it in eyeshot. It
> was the whole reason I got one.

Well, it's rather tacky to turn off the laptop, unplug it, etc., just to
lug it into a boardroom.  Not impressive.

> > As you might imagine, I have a full suite of programming tools on the laptop,
> > including MS Office Pro and VB Pro, both of which are worth about $500
> > apiece - I'd sure hate to lose them to a malicious cracker, or someone who
> > would like a personal copy of my source code for their own use, or who just
> > wants to "borrow" my secret key for awhile.
> >
> Business must be good, you are more worried about somebody stealing a $500
> dollar program than a several thousand dollar laptop?

Oh, I'm not worried about the laptop walking off, I'm worried about the
software I've written walking off...

> > What do people recommend as the solution for this?  Some sort of IDEA-based
> > or triple-DES-based device driver would seem to be the answer to this, but
> > I'm not sure which is the "best" (most reliable, fastest, easiest to set up)
> > one to use.  I like the sound of Michael Sattler's encryption driver for the
> > Mac, but alas, I'm running MS-DOS :(
> > 
> Try Lo-Jak so that when your laptop goes a wanderin' you can find it....:)

I've never had anyone even attempt to rip off the laptop, but I've had people
ask for "free samples" of the prototype code...
-- 
Ed Carp, N7EKG    			Ed.Carp@linux.org, ecarp@netcom.com
801/534-8857 voicemail			801/460-1883 digital pager
Finger ecarp@netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key		an88744@anon.penet.fi
                       ** PGP encrypted email preferred! **

Cop: "How many beers have you had tonight, bro?"
Suspect: "Seventy."  -- from the TV show "Cops"

I don't know which is the "best" encrypting file system for MS-DOS.  I
currently use Peter Gutmann's SFS, and am very happy with it.  I have used
SecureDevice (from Max Loewenthal and Arthur Helwig) in the past, and
found it painfully slow on my 25MHz 386SX.  I also know of Mike Ingle's
SecureDrive, but I have not used it.  SFS and SecureDrive require a
separate partition.  SecureDevice uses a container file instead of a
separate partition. 

You also asked about Linux.  I think that Matt Blaze's CFS would work 
there, but I don't know.

--apb (Alan Barrett)

Ed Carp [khijol Sysadmin] originally said the following...

> apiece - I'd sure hate to lose them to a malicious cracker, or someone who
> would like a personal copy of my source code for their own use, or who just
> wants to "borrow" my secret key for awhile.

"Is that a PGP key in your pocket or are you just happy to see
me?" :)

The best way I can think of to protect your secret key is to
store it off of your laptop.  Put it on a floppy disk or a
PCMCIA card and keep the sucker in your pocket or in a safe.

> What do people recommend as the solution for this?  Some sort of IDEA-based
> or triple-DES-based device driver would seem to be the answer to this, but
> I'm not sure which is the "best" (most reliable, fastest, easiest to set up)
> one to use.  I like the sound of Michael Sattler's encryption driver for the
> Mac, but alas, I'm running MS-DOS :(

There's a program for DOS called SecureDrive (I think) that
uses IDEA encryption to protect hard drives.
Only problem you'll have is you'll have to repartition your
hard drive.  This is because the bootable partition needs to be
unencrypted.

What I'd setup is a small partition that's bootable and has a
version of DOS installed on it.  Then I would keep all the
software/data you want to protect on the much larger encrypted
partition.

Another thing I'd note is that while it works great with
uncompressed hard drives and floppies, I'm not certain that it
would work or work safely with compressed drives.  I haven't
tried it yet.

I'm at my school's computer lab so I can't dig up a copy of it
yet (or remember where the FTP site I got it from) but if you
want I'll try to track it down for you (if it hasn't been
posted here already).
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