Bitcoin Forum

Often I see questions pop up on the forum regarding safe keeping of passwords and data. I decided to write up a detailed instructions on the encryption of data.
For creating encrypted data base, I use software called VeraCrypt. It is free and open source. More details on the software here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VeraCrypt
Download and install the software here: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html

1. Open the software, double click "Create Volume:
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2. Now we click the check mark next to "Create an encrypted file container" and click next
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3. During the next step we decide whether we want to create a regular encrypted volume or one with double encryption. In these instructions I am going to show regularly encrypted volume. So, we choose "Standard VeraCrypt volume" and click next
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4. New we connect our usb drive to the computer. During this step we have to manually enter the path to the file which is going to be placed on the USB. For this open "my computer" and see under which name is our USB (in my case it is E). So, we enter our path for the file being created and click next.
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5. Choosing type of encryption as "Twofish", and clicking next
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6. Need to choose the encryption size. Here you are going to have to judge yourself. If you are planning to have encrypted just password database and private keys, you will not need much space. My recommendation then would be to take up a small amount of the USB and the rest of it to fill up with various files. This is done so if ever your usb was lost or stolen, and open by a third party, the file would not stick out.
My usb drive size is 3.7gb so I am choosing 1gb for encryption file size and leaving 2.7 gb empty
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7. Now need to come up with a password. Password needs to be new and not something you use everywhere else. Better to make something out of 15-20 various symbols with different sizes. Write it down on the paper for you. After a few days on constant input you can throw away the paper
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8. Start up the generation of you key encryption, move your mouse around, the key will be generated quicker. When the bar is fully green, press Format
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9. The process of encryption itself has began. The larger size you picked during step 6, the longer it will take. For example when I was encrypting 60 gb it took me 30 minutes. Process is complete when you see this message
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On the next window press Exit. On this step the process of encryption is complete. Now I will show you how to use it. Access your USB and we see this kind of file. It can ONLY be opened with the software VeraCrypt AND putting in your set password

Upon accessing VeraCrypt we see many different unused volumes in your system. Choose one, say A. Click select file and our created file on the usb and click mount
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On the next window enter the password you created during step 7 and click ok. Access my computer and we observe the new local drive.

This is our encrypted volume which appeared only after we entered the password from it. In it we can store our password, private keys etc....

IMPORTANT: Upong ending your work, do not forget to close the volume, otherwise you may risk of losing your data. For this we press Dismount in VeraCrypt
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After this we can dismount the USB from the PC (not forgetting about the safe way to eject the usb and not just pulling it out). The process of creating encrypted volume/database will take about 20 minutes but save you a lot of time you could have spent worrying about keeping your data safe

Added a brief description of other programs for data encryption: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4588410

very detailed instructions for data protection, thank you very much!
I will definitely use it!

I am a moderate risk taker and I do care about security a lot as I believe that precaution is always better than cure. As we all know that private key is everything when it comes to the control of Bitcoins associated with that particular wallet. I have created multiple backup copies and stored it in multiple safe locations so I am sure that I won't need that service. However, I really appreciate such efforts and we need to constantly work on building awareness about self-responsibility.

Thanks for making people aware that they should use encryption. Would've been nice if you had also given a reason for why you chose VeraCrypt? Did you test different tools? I use BitLocker so far, maybe I give VeraCrypt a try.

The main criteria used for choosing the software for encryption was the open source as well as no known holes in the system. Before TrueCrypt was used for encryption, but there were too many rumors circulating regarding the developers ties to the FBI as well as eventual stopping of updates.
About BitLocker, the developers were Microsoft. Personally, I do not trust them after Windows 10, when there were too many articles online showing how the user's information is being tracked. On the other end, if you are not breaking the law, there is nothing to be afraid of with microsoft software, I am still of the principle that if I want to hide something or encrypt nobody besides me should have the possibility to access it.

It is a good advice for all investors. Storage data in a safe place is the main thing in crypto currency trading. Thank you very much for your details.

Veracrypt is a fairly commonly used open source program with quite the active development team. It was kind of a successor to a formerly popular open source program called truecrypt, which ceased development activity a few years ago. Definitely worth a try, one of my personal favorite programs for data encryption!

If you are looking for safe cloud storage, I would recommend taking a look into the Crypto project Siacoin, they have quite the product and offer encrypted cloud storage like none other. For much cheaper too!

Thanks for the guide sir it serve me right. and it help us a lot.

make sure you know your data because this is important at guide your storage

It's a very good guide, thank you. You could store the private keys of your wallets on this storage  ;)

Like I've said there are lot of informations here in the beginners and help than bitcoin discussion, and politics society.

To OP, just be very careful with your hardware wallet to get wet.

It is a good advice for all investors people should use encryption. Storing data in a safe place is the main thing in crypto currency trading.

I already installed in my device, but i didn't use it yet! It is a good advice for all. Thanks for sharing it

It is very good guide, I use hidden veracrypt volume to store my files, for private keys I use encrypted usb, veracrypt is good because it is totally free and open source.

Thanks for the feedback!

Longer period of time i try to keep data safe  and today i found this tutorial. I'm glad there is such a thing to secure and create an encrypt data repository. Well instructions described in detail. From the main page i downloaded the Portable version. I tried this software with a new USB key and moved sensitive data there. I assume i no longer have to worry about misusing my data in case of usb key loss. Thank you.

Steady once this advice, may be useful for me and the crowd, may you give smooth in my activities, once again as a new person here to thank you, hopefully no more tricks and a new way.

I'm using true crypto to encrypt my private keys and host files on local disk and keep a backup on google drive which has to enable two-factor authorization.

I also used TrueCrypt before, but it was not supported by the developers of the project

Added a brief description of other programs for data encryption: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4588410