BitLocker Drive Encryption with BitLocker to Go Overview

Help Prevent loss of theft of data with BitLocker and BitLocker To Go

Protect your data—even on removable drives. With the continued growth of the mobile workforce, protecting sensitive data on mobile computers continues to be a major concern of IT decision makers. In 2008, 42 percent of respondents to the Computer Security Institute Computer Crime and Security Survey of enterprise IT professionals report that their organizations experienced theft of laptops or mobile devices. With Windows 7, BitLocker Drive Encryption helps protect sensitive data from being accessed by unauthorized users who come into possession of lost, stolen, or improperly decommissioned computers. BitLocker to Go extends BitLocker data protection to USB storage devices, enabling them to be restricted with a passphrase. In addition to having control over passphrase length and complexity, IT administrators can set a policy that requires users to apply BitLocker protection to removable drives before being able to write to them.

Easier to manage. Windows 7 gives administrators more control over how data in their environment is protected. From policy-configured Active Directory Domain Services integration for the escrow of recovery keys, to simple and efficient hardware recovery processes, BitLocker provides an integrated management experience for IT professionals. BitLocker to Go also gives administrators control over how removable storage devices can be utilized within their environment and the strength of protection that they require. Administrators can require data protection for any removable storage device upon which users want to write data, while still allowing unprotected storage devices to be utilized in a read-only mode. Policies are also available to require appropriate passwords, smart card, or domain user credentials to utilize a protected removable storage device.

Easier to set up. Whether you need to protect internal or removable drives, BitLocker in Windows 7 makes that protection easy because it works with almost any drive. Windows 7 simplifies the encryption of internal drives by automatically creating the hidden boot partition necessary to use BitLocker to protect the OS volume, eliminating the need to manually select that option during installation or to repartition the drive afterward. Best of all, BitLocker can be enabled on drives running Windows 7 with a simple right-click.