Pretty cool luke, I’ve known about TrueCrypt for a while. A great program and it is worth noting it also runs on linux.

I usually recommend Cryptainer LE to people not computer savvy as it is easier to use. Seems to work ok too.

I have no need to hide files tho, my computer is mostly single user …ME and in the off chance someone else is using it I have a seperate sign in account for them and its locked down with permissions and stuff. But no data on my machine matters really nothing illegal either, haha.

Here are some pointers that are good practice for any system:

No dictionary words.
No names.
No information that could be directly associated with you (date of birth, phone number, licensee plate).
Use non-alphanumeric characters such as !@#$%^&*()<>’~`.
Use mixed case (upper and lower case letters).
Use spaces if allowed.

You can use a random password generator. I like APG because it generates nice pronounceable passwords like:

AbayRag2 (Ab-ay-Rag-TWO)
ceOtEgew6 (ce-Ot-Eg-ew-SIX)
Daltogtyd1 (Dalt-og-tyd-ONE)
ViFlynd2 (Vi-Flynd-TWO)
JejTods8 (Jej-Tods-EIGHT)
vevFilkok9 (vev-Filk-ok-NINE)

Pick two or three words from the APG list, then separate them by spaces, and you have a relatively strong, and not so hard to remember passphrase. For example from the list above I’d pick:

AbayRag2 vevFilkok9

It’s an 18 character password and Ab-ay-Rag-TWO vev-Filkok-NINE is not that hard to remember. :P

Wow! This is an awesome post. I’ll be sure to try this out sometime in the future…

BTW, since the whole thing depends on the passphrase, how do you pick a good passphrase?