What is encryption?
Encryption is a process which uses sophisticated mathematical functions to store data making it unreadable to anyone without a specific key, providing added security for data stored on computers. Library & IT encrypts the hard drives of Bucknell-owned computers so that lost or stolen computers cannot be accessed by unauthorized users. We use BitLocker for Windows and FileVault for Macs for this purpose.
With encryption it becomes extremely difficult for someone to access the contents of your hard drive (even if it is removed from your computer) without having access to the encryption key or your password. Library & IT maintains these encryption keys in a secure location.
Enabling encryption generally takes less than 10 minutes; the amount of time it takes to finish will vary depending on the type of hard drive and the amount of data stored on it. Once it is finished you will not notice any difference in performance.