If you want to protect your computer’s data from falling into the wrong hands, you need to keep it encrypted with good encrypting software. One of the best encrypting applications, which was pretty popular among privacy-focused PC users, was TrueCrypt.
TrueCrypt was a free, open-source utility tool that was everyone’s go-to software application for full disk encryption. However, in May 2014, it was suddenly discontinued by its developers.
If you are one of those users who like to encrypt their data and use TrueCrypt for that, you might be devasted after it’s shut down. However, you don’t have to worry anymore, as we have come up with the top TrueCrypt Alternatives that would perform a similar task of encrypting the data and functions equally well.
What happened with TrueCrypt?
Because of its immense popularity, many users were surprised after the sudden discontinuation of the TrueCrypt. What made TrueCrypt successful was its unique ability to build encrypted partitions on any provided hard disk. Also, organizations would use it to generate virtual encrypted disks that reside in a given file. Other than that, the software was multi-platform, i.e., it was available for both Windows and macOS. So, what happened with TrueCrypt that developers were forced to shut it down?
After its exit, many speculations were made. One of the prominent rumors was that Google’s Project Zero security team was responsible for it as they find out several major security bugs in the encryption algorithm of TrueCrypt, which its users were unaware of. However, since developers choose to be anonymous and no official clarification came from their side, there is still no exact clue as to what went wrong.
Is it safe to use TrueCrypt today?
It has been more than seven years after the official end of support to TrueCrypt. Its download was soon unlisted from the official platform. However, it was available on unofficial platforms and is still available for download.
Since it was discontinued in 2014, there has been no official update to fix the bugs and security vulnerabilities by TrueCrypt developers. Moreover, if you try to download it from unofficial sources, you might actually introduce malware programs, such as TrueCrypt Ransomware on your computer. Cybercriminals are undoubtedly cashing on its name and releasing malicious programs pretending to be the TrueCrypt application so that users can download and install it for encryption.
So, in conclusion, it is undoubtedly unsafe to use the TrueCrypt Utility tool on your system unless the original developers suddenly decide to relaunch it with the updated version.
What are the top TrueCrypt Alternatives?
Though TrueCrypt is gone, that does not mean that you have to compromise on the privacy of your data. There are some great TrueCrypt Alternatives that are equally good in encrypting the data.
Let us list out the top TrueCrpy Alternative for you:
VeraCrypt
VeraCrypt is a free, open-source encrypting application. It is an exact copy of the TrueCrypt, i.e., the source code used in VeraCrypt is the same as TrueCrypt that is modified according to the current security levels. After the exit of TrueCrypt, VeraCrypt has become the go-to application for privacy-focused users to encrypt their data. Like TrueCrypt, Veracrypt is also available for multiple platforms. In addition, it allows full disk encryption and works on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for data protection. So, if you were addicted to the TrueCrypt application, the VeraCrypt is the best replacement you can get.
DiskCryptor
DiskCryptor is another similar application to TrueCrypt. It is also a free and open-source tool. It has the ability to encrypt all your files, system drive volumes, plus external devices such as USB drives, CDs, and DVDs. The reason, DiskCryptor has striking similarities to TrueCrypt is because an anonymous TrueCrypt user developed the DiskCryptor as its alternative. DiskCryptor is faster than TrueCrypt and VeraCrypt. Along with that, it does not consume much computing power during the encryption process.
Bitlocker
Bitlocker is a Windows-specific encryption algorithm, which is used to encrypt the entire volume of Windows devices. For encryption, the Bitlocker uses the AES encryption algorithm with a 128-bit or 256-bit key. Unlike DiskCryptor and VeraCrypt, the Bitlocker does not have the ability to create encrypted containers, i.e., you have to encrypt the entire volume at once. The Bitlocker encryption is strong, but if multiple people use your computer on the same user account, they can easily access the encrypted files. In addition to that, Bitlocker is not open source, so users cannot know what’s going in the background. However, if you are a Windows OS user, Bitlocker is the best program for you as it is built-in and more secure.
Summing Up
After the exit of TrueCrypt, it is not safe to use it for encryption needs. However, the tools listed in this post are the best TrueCrypt alternatives and would provide you with a similar experience. You can choose the one that best meets your encryption requirement.
