The Windows password prompt myth

Many employees within a company, some even within the IT department, believe their laptops to be secure because of the Windows password. I you ask the question, ‘how do you protect your laptop against physical threats?’ some will respond with the Windows password prompt. This doesn’t offer much security at all. Dr. Hugh Thompson put it very succinctly: “Without properly-implemented encryption, a password is just a polite request for an attacker to not access data.”

Below are just some of the ways round a Windows password:

• Open source (usually free) password crackers such as Ophcrack
• Proprietary (not free) ‘password recovery’ software that can reset the password to blank
• Mount the hard drive as secondary and you can view files and folders without a password

How do you protect your hard drive from prying eyes? Simple, full disc encryption. A one-off setup that protects ALL data.