VeraCrypt

VeraCrypt is a free open source program used to encrypt data on hard drives. It can be used to create an encrypted file container that is mounted as a virtual disk, or to fully encrypt a disk partition or a USB drive, including the system partition. When using the last function, the user will have to enter the password each time the PC starts up (pre-boot authentication). The program also provides an opportunity to "hide" the encrypted volume from strangers' eyes with hidden volumes and a hidden operating system.

VeraCrypt uses the following encryption algorithms: AES, Serpent, Twofish, Camellia and Kuznyechik. They are also supported in cascades such as AES-Twofish, AES-Twofish-Serpent, Serpent-AES, Serpent-Twofish-AES and Twofish-Serpent. The list of cryptographic hash functions used includes SHA-256, SHA-512, Whirlpool, BLAKE2s-256 and Streebog, and recent versions also offer Argon2id key derivation for non-system volumes. VeraCrypt is based on the TrueCrypt 7.1a encryptor. It fixes many vulnerabilities and security issues found in TrueCrypt and uses far more iterations when deriving the key, which makes brute-force attacks much harder.

All you need to know for a user who doesn't know much about cryptography is that VeraCrypt reliably protects private data. It is equipped with a volume creation wizard, which allows you to set up encryption in a few steps. VeraCrypt also supports the ability to assign hotkeys to various operations, such as automatic mounting of all devices, closing token sessions, wiping the password cache and so on. They will help you in situations where you urgently need to dismount the encrypted volume and clear the data about working with it. Encryption is automatic, real-time and transparent, and it can be hardware-accelerated on modern processors.

VeraCrypt provides robust encryption of hard drives, protecting your private data from unauthorized access.