Encryption always slows things down.

Assuming you don't work a the DOD, not sure why encrypting every file would be better then just disconnecting everything from the 'net.

We have servers that have their disks encrypted because a customer demanded it and the application took about a 10% hit in performance. When the customer complained we told them they could have it fast or secure... pick one!

I would definitely keep the editing workstation off of the network. not only will you avoid the performance hit but if you have a hard drive crash, good luck retrieving your files from an encrypted disk.

It is a total waste of time encrypting a hard drive unless it contains sensitive data that could do the company irreparable harm if accessed by the wrong people. I hardly consider video in that category unless, of course, it's video of the boss with his secretary. ;-)

~jr

It is a total waste of time encrypting a hard drive unless it contains sensitive data that could do the company irreparable harm if accessed by the wrong people

At work to secure the personal data on staff/students it's all on portable drives & locked in a vault that only 3 or 4 people have the key to. Seems to work well.

You didn't say which encryption software your IT department is requiring.

Personally I use Truecrypt to encrypt my whole system partition (drive C:). I set aside another partition (drive D:) to be unencrypted mainly for video work. I have run my system with and without encryption and I honestly can't tell the difference in performance while doing everyday stuff (including gaming). Even still, I figured I give video editing the best shot at performance.

Recovering files after a disc crash is no more difficult when encrypting. You mount the encrypted drive just like always and use whatever tools you want to grab things and copy what you can. If there's a bad sector then the data at that sector will be a problem no matter what. Truecrypt uses 128-bit (16-byte) blocks for encryption - typical of AES-based programs. A single bit error from a bad sector could affect the whole block but not any other blocks.

I don't want to say what type of encryption they are implementing, but I do know a coworker's external drive attached to his company laptop was encrypted and also got bricked for no apparent reason -- twice.

We recovered the files, but they were now named "File 001" "File 002" "File 003" etc. We had to open each file even to know if it was a .doc or .jpg or whatever, then rename them manually. IT WAS A PAIN. The co-worker has since retired, helped along by this kind of silliness.

"Actually if your IT people were any good at their jobs they could answer that question. "

You don't know the half of it. It's a noble effort to protect data, but it's driving us in the video department crazy.

What they really want to do is protect removable drives, but any eSATA drives are considered removable and will be encrypted. I think they want to do internal drives too. We can't take that chance.

But you are correct. When I ask, I get stares.