Datalock laptop encryption?

[ohmystars80]

I am thinking of getting ZoneAlarm’s Datalock encryption program for my laptop:

http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-data-lock.htm

They claim it will prevent people from booting the computer, and it encrypts the data so to view it, you need a password.

What I want to know is what datalock's pre-boot authentication actually do?

How does it prevent you from booting the laptop?

Can someone get past it and read the data on a laptop they stole (found)?

 

[newtekie1]

What I want to know is what datalock's pre-boot authentication actually do?

AFAIK, most encryptions like this change the boot sector of the hard drive to include their software encryption. So when the drive is booted, it won't boot without first entering a username and password to unlock the drive.

How does it prevent you from booting the laptop?

As I mentioned above, it asks your for a username and password, which will unlock the drive before booting Windows.

Can someone get past it and read the data on a laptop they stole (found)?

Anything is possible, but it certainly makes it a hell of a lot harder, and your normal user would not be able to do it. Since the entire drive is encrypted, even if they put it in another computer, the data would not be accesable unless they knew the encryption key.

 

[Hybrid_theory]

You should only consider getting this if you have sensitive information on your laptop. Encrypting the drive will lower performance, and can be a hassle over time to be entering passwords more and more. If you do go through with this, make sure to back up the encryption key (unless it is just a password, then nevermind)