Kaspersky Endpoint Security lets you encrypt files and folders that are stored on local and removable drives, or entire removable drives and hard drives. Data encryption minimizes the risk of information leaks that may occur when a portable computer, removable drive or hard drive is lost or stolen, or when data is accessed by unauthorized users or applications. Kaspersky Endpoint Security uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption algorithm.
If the license has expired, the application does not encrypt new data, and old encrypted data remains encrypted and available for use. In this event, encrypting new data requires the program be activated with a new license that permits the use of encryption.
If your license has expired, or the End User License Agreement has been violated, the license key, Kaspersky Endpoint Security, or encryption components has been removed, the encrypted status of previously encrypted files is not guaranteed. This is because some applications, such as Microsoft Office Word, create a temporary copy of files during editing. When the original file is saved, the temporary copy replaces the original file. As a result, on a computer that has no or inaccessible encryption functionality, the file remains unencrypted.
Kaspersky Endpoint Security offers the following aspects of data protection:
The default encryption rule has a lower priority than encryption rules created for individual removable drives. Encryption rules created for removable drives of the specified device model have a lower priority than encryption rules created for removable drives with the specified device ID.
To select an encryption rule for files on a removable drive, Kaspersky Endpoint Security checks whether or not the device model and ID are known. The application then performs one of the following operations:
The application lets you prepare a removable drive for using encrypted data stored on it in portable mode. After enabling portable mode, you can access encrypted files on removable drives connected to a computer without encryption functionality.
BitLocker is a technology that is part of the Windows operating system. If a computer is equipped with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), BitLocker uses it to store recovery keys that provide access to an encrypted hard drive. When the computer starts, BitLocker requests the hard drive recovery keys from the Trusted Platform Module and unlocks the drive. You can configure the use of a password and/or PIN code for accessing recovery keys.
You can specify the default full disk encryption rule and create a list of hard drives to be excluded from encryption. Kaspersky Endpoint Security performs full disk encryption by sector after the Kaspersky Security Center policy is applied. The application encrypts all logical partitions of hard drives simultaneously.
After the system hard drives have been encrypted, at the next computer startup the user must complete authentication using the Authentication Agent before the hard drives can be accessed and the operating system is loaded. This requires entering the password of the token or smart card connected to the computer, or the user name and password of the Authentication Agent account created by the local area network administrator using Authentication Agent account management task. These accounts are based on Microsoft Windows accounts under which users log into the operating system. You can also use Single Sign-On (SSO) technology, which lets you automatically log in to the operating system using the user name and password of the Authentication Agent account.
If you back up a computer and then encrypt the computer data, after which you restore the backup copy of the computer and encrypt the computer data again, Kaspersky Endpoint Security creates duplicates of Authentication Agent accounts. To remove the duplicate accounts, you must use the klmover utility with the dupfix key. The klmover utility is included in the Kaspersky Security Center build. You can read more about its operation in the Kaspersky Security Center Help.
Access to encrypted hard drives is possible only from computers on which Kaspersky Endpoint Security with full disk encryption functionality is installed. This precaution minimizes the risk of data leaks from an encrypted hard drive when an attempt to access it is made outside of the local area network of the company.
To encrypt hard drives and removable drives, you can use the Encrypt used disk space only function. It is recommended you only use this function for new devices that have not been previously used. If you are applying encryption to a device that is already in use, it is recommended you encrypt the entire device. This ensures that all data is protected – even deleted data that might still contain retrievable information.
Before beginning encryption, Kaspersky Endpoint Security obtains the map of file system sectors. The first wave of encryption includes sectors that are occupied by files at the moment when encryption is started. The second wave of encryption includes sectors that were written to after encryption began. After encryption is complete, all sectors containing data are encrypted.
After encryption is complete and a user deletes a file, the sectors that stored the deleted file become available for storing new information at the file system level but remain encrypted. Thus, as files are written to a new device and the device is regularly encrypted with the Encrypt used disk space only function enabled, all sectors will be encrypted after some time.
The data needed to decrypt files is provided by the Kaspersky Security Center Administration Server that controlled the computer at the time of encryption. If the computer with encrypted objects was managed by a different Administration Server for some reason, you can obtain access to the encrypted data in one of the following ways:
If there is no access to encrypted data, follow the special instructions for working with encrypted data (Restoring access to encrypted files, Working with encrypted devices when there is no access to them).