Abstract
Cybercrime is a serious social problem. Data security threats affect not only large financial organizations and government department but also personal computer users. It is very common that laptops or USB drivers are stolen or lost, and private information is leaked as a consequence. Encryption is one method used to ensure data security. During recent years, encryption technology has developed significantly, and there are many encryption facilities available.
Even though users do care about their data security, normally they think it is too sophisticated and time-consuming to install and configure encryption facilities. They also worry about encryption would affect their system's performance and other features. As a result, many people do not even try to use the encryption technologies. Others have tried some encryption tools but didn't like them and then give up. However, users still have the problem of information leakage now.
In this thesis, the author performs research on encryption technologies, describes the features and advantages or disadvantages of the most popular encryption facilities, and also measures and compares the performance penalty of these facilities. Furthermore, recommendations are given based on different aspects of users' requirements. Hopefully, the result of this thesis will be valuable to users who want to use encryption technology and must choose the most suitable facility.