I won’t go into any long spiel this time. Let me just give you the short version, the simple analysis of why I say Bitlocker(1) is bad.
If you lose the key, even you can not erase your own data.
Oh sure… plenty of articles on the Internet about how to clear a BitLocker drive. Except that they only work some times. If the BIOS has an additional encryption layer turned on, and then you set a password on the BIOS… and then you lose that, too (or never had it, because the machine was set up for you by some one else)… then it’s just toughies. The data remains.
Oh but it’s encrypted! Yeah, right. The data’s there. It can be accessed if some has enough incentive.
And I have to tell you: the more security you place on a computer, the more of a target you turn it into. Like how big fences, guard houses and massive pad locks serve only to advertise that there’s something in there worth stealing.
Silly behavior.
And wasteful. Bitlocker will also consign a Great Many hard drives to the garbage pile, and BIOS passwords will do the same for a Great Many computers.
Waste.
The Human Race has used up all the available margin for both waste and paranoid stupidity. Time to get rational, folks. Stop the paranoia. Stop the waste.
If your data is that sensitve, don’t put it on a computer. Physical records are fabulously easier to protect than are electronic ones. <Raspberry-sticking-tongue-out sound>
[30]
(1) What is “BitLocker” ? If you don’t know, it’s just the latest craze in computer security. It allows you to completely “encrypt” the contents of your hard drive. When you set it up, there is a “key” that is given to you that can be used to later on unlock the hard drive, should you ever need to. As long as you use the hard drive on that computer, you won’t need that key. Unless you do silly things, like forgetting your sign on password and such… in which case even you are locked out of your data.