Should I encrypt my hard drive?

Is encrypting a hard drive really worth it? What bad can happen if I don't encrypt it?

 

I'd be interested in hearing the answer to the first question myself - especially from the standpoint of "How much time does it take to actually get going and shutdown?" while you're waiting for an entire drive to encrypt/de-crypt.

Unfortunately, I'm more impatient than paranoid. Pete

 

LOL I only encrypt certian files and folders with MxCrypt. It don't take as long. But I still would like to know what others think.

 

encrypting your entire HD.... BAD.... long painfull.... to many bad experience....

 

I haven't found a reason to encrypt my hard drive yet. I'm still looking for a good reason.

 

We're just starting a project to encrypt hard disks.
Lots of our account managers carry loads of privacy sensitive stuff around. And we've got some kind of a fraud squad (we're an insurance company).

Since I demonstrated a way to hack every Windows laptop, just using one floppy (it's a linux based hack tool, just for the grabs on the internet), the need to protect our data by more than just a password was made clear. Then there are lots of regulations around, so privacy is a main concern.

Using encryption of the hard disk, any theft is just a financial issue, not a privacy problem anymore.

We chose not to use EFS, because we want our users not to worry about how to use it. And there's a local Siebel database, that's secured now too,

We use Safeboot with an ActiveCard token, to keep the key separate from the data. There's no performance problem. It''s all very transparant.