As this week has shown, physical security of information is just as important as passwords, as our Government has learnt to its cost. While part of me is appalled that the child benefit information was sent out without having been encrypted first, I can understand this is not always that easy to do.

So I'm having small worry about my data and whether or not I should encrypt it. The answer is probably yes but how?

  If you have Windows XP Pro or Vista Ultimate there is encryption built in. One alternative is to use separate software such as the recently released Steganos Safe One. It can encrypt two 1GB areas, don't expect to include digital photo or music collections but that should keep you going for Word and Excel documents for some time to come.

As much as I want to promote safe data, I do feel that I should make some warnings. I once enabled Encrypting File System on my computer here in the office. All was fine and it was hardly noticeable. Right up until I had to change my login password. For some reason the various keys were not updated and I couldn't access any of my files.

Luckily I had a recent backup but I never got the files back. So as much as the extra security is valuable, it does make life a little more complicated. Time well spent though.