Tech Tips / Windows XP / Security
A few more EFS best practices
The following are some tips that will help
you more efficiently use the Encrypting File System (EFS) in
Windows XP:
-
Always encrypt folders, not individual files. Many applications
(like Word) create temporary files in the same folder. If you
encrypt only individual files, the temporary files are not
encrypted.
-
Encrypt your "My Documents" folder.
-
Encrypt %Temp% and %tmp% folders.
-
Export your certificate and private key and keep them in a safe
place.
-
Export Recovery Agent's certificate and private key and keep them
in a safe place.
-
If you transfer sensitive data over the network, use IPSec. When
you send an EFS encrypted file over the network, the file is
decrypted and sent in plaintext. IPSec allows you to encrypt the
data for transmission over the network.
-
When you print, don't use spool files or encrypt the spool
folder.
You cannot encrypt files with system
attributes, or files in the %SystemRoot% folder and its
subfolders.
Note: EFS is available on Windows XP
Professional computers that have NTFS partitions only. EFS isn't available for FAT32.