Data can leak from partially encrypted disks

July 16, 2008 – 6:24 PM

If you’re using encryption software to keep part of your computer’s hard drive private, you may have a problem, according to researchers at the University of Washington and BT Group PLC.

They’ve discovered that popular programs such as Microsoft Corp.’s Word and Google Desktop store data on unencrypted sections of a computer’s hard drive, even when the programs are working with encrypted files.

“Information is spilling out from the encrypted region into the unencrypted region,” said Tadayoshi Kohno, an assistant professor at the Seattle-based university and a co-author the study.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110221&source=rss_topic17