Suggestion -> Encryption for Associated Image File

[99bobster99]

Hello,

I think a really nice feature of your RamDisk program would be to include an option to encrypt the associated image file that gets stored to the hard drive. This would make a nice way to permanently store sensitive data on your laptop without having to worry about security (i.e. pagefile, temporary internet cache, password lookup, .....).

Just an idea, but I think it would be a very effective feature!

[Support]

Hi 99bobster99,

Thank you for your suggestion!

[99bobster99]

Hi Support,

When do you think such a feature might be available?

[Support]

Hi 99bobster99,

This feature is still under consideration and evaluation. I'm sorry that we haven't made a decision on this feature whether will be implemented or not.

[99bobster99]

Hello,

I've spoken with a few other work colleagues, that are using Primo Ramdisk. We all agree that having an encryption option on the "Image Settings" page, would be a very useful feature.

I'll give you a few examples that we discussed;

-> in our environment (programming) our product (in progress source files) need to be secure while at our customers facility. Having the Primo Ramdisk associated image file encrypted, we feel, makes a secure environment (our product can not me stolen in the event our laptops are stolen - this is a big one!) Our CEO loves this idea, and is avidly looking for a product on the market that is capable of this function. His motivation is that as soon as the Primo virtual disk is closed, after a system shutdown, our product is automatically encrypted and safe.

-> I personally do not use Primo Ramdisk for personal use, but our group sees this as a great benefit to any home users that are storing any financial documents on their home computers. This would make an ideal environment for accessing the great speed of the ram disk, while also keeping any sensitive documents or work secure, while not in use.

Please give this further thought, we feel this feature would set Primo apart from your competition as well as serve a percentage of your user base with a very useful feature. We cannot see the addition of this feature as a great programming feat, since this is a known programming routine, as well as being executed only after a shutdown/load of the associated image file.

We would appreciate any further consideration on this feature being added to a near future release of Primo Ramdisk.

Thank you.

[InquiringMind]

99bobster99,

If security is so important, then why not use TrueCrypt or DiskCryptor to encrypt your data or the whole disk? These offer tried and tested (as far as such things can be) encryption (yes, TrueCrypt's site may now be offline with a warning, but it is still probably safe to use).

Even if Romex were to implement image file encryption, it could not easily be done in a secure fashion since it would be available in decrypted form as soon as the ramdisk driver was loaded (drivers cannot do user interaction so cannot prompt for a password on startup - so either passwords would have to be stored or encrypted ramdisks would have to be loaded/started manually).

[99bobster99]

Thank you for your feedback InquiringMind! Good mention on the TrueCrypt program, I do use this little gem all the time! In my opinion, it would be a waste to encrypt my entire disk drive (at least in our situation). In our environment we would only require our working directory to be encrypted. In this case our working directory is our Primo Ramdisk partition.

My thought on incorporating password protection, on the associated image file, would be to let the Primo RamDisk application boot up and create the virtual ram disk (leaving it empty). Prior to Primo RamDisk loading the associated image file, popup a simple password entry screen (maybe have this as a manual function, initiated by the user, not by the driver itself). Some creativity might be required here, by the Primo programming team.

My thought is that, some Primo RamDisk users, may have sensitive information on their Primo RamDisk partition. If this partition is saved as an associated image file, the user's sensitive (potentially financial information, in my case programming source code) is available for unauthorized use (i.e. multiple users sharing a single computer). IMO, for such situations, having the associated image file "lockable" in some way, would be a basic requirement.

For myself, the ability to password protect (encrypt) my associated image file would be a fantastic feature! For home use as well as at work. This feature would certainly set Primo apart from their competitors, as well as the freeware ram disk applications out there.

It would be nice to hear back from Primo's technical support team, to see if this feature is even feasible to implement. Or like you mentioned, InquiringMind, maybe it is simply not possible with the way their driver is embedded into the system.

Worth kicking the idea around, since I find Primo RamDisk a fantastic utility for our programming team!

[InquiringMind]

You could still use TrueCrypt for the situation you describe by setting up a TrueCrypt container on the ramdisk (which, when mounted by TrueCrypt, would appear as a new drive). TrueCrypt can be configured to autostart and automount images, which means it would prompt for the passphrase straightaway if you want to streamline things.

As an aside, if documents/source code need to be kept private, it may be worth double-checking that temporary files are stored securely (i.e. check the TEMP/TMP values) along with any scratchpad data created by development tools (which may reside under %APPDATA%, %LOCALAPPDATA% or %USERPROFILE%) plus any backups created by System Restore (Previous Versions). Catching all such data can be tricky which is why whole disk encryption can offer more security.

[99bobster99]

I'll give your idea a try, thank you for the suggestion!

It still would be way nicer if Primo Ramdisk had this all built in "under the hood". I'm thinking something like the way CCleaner has their "secure" clean option ability. Kiss rule, keep it simple, a checkbox to save the associated image file "securely" back to the hard drive, after use. During the next bootup, a password entry box pops up. Cool feature to have, no secondary (discontinued) encryption package required. Just say'in.

[99bobster99]

Primo tech support, do you have any comments on this suggestion?