Re: An EFS encryption question.

Good afternoon Brian,

You raised a good point. Does this mean that the burglar who stole my computer and broke into my account could still read the files, simply because Windows will always make a new certificate ?

There is no registry change that can stop this automatic generation?

About those smart card readers you mentioned. Where can I get a simple one at a reasonable price ?

Thanks for your time and input, Brian.

Peter

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Not a good idea.
The first time that you forget to import the PKCS#12 before you attempt to access a file, a new EFS certificate will be generated
From that point on, all newly encrypted files will use the new default EFS key
If you want to have the removal of the EFS certificate from software, then I recommend you move to Vista and use a smart-card based EFS certificate

Brian

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What I like to do is lock some of my sensitive files using the windows EFS encryption so that if someone were to steal my computer and somehow hack the password into my account, they still would not be able to read the files.

If I were to:

1. encrypt the files
2. then export the "encrypting file system" certificate from the certificate manager (in the personal folder) to a thumb drive (and a backup drive).
3. delete the certificate managers copy
4. Every time I want to access the files, I plug the thumb drive in, and use it to decrypt the files.

Is this a good way to do it ? Any red flags here ?

Thanks for your time and help

Peter

.

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