Feds encrypt 800,000 government laptops, 1.2 million more to go

Government agencies in the United States are scrambling to plug a glaring security hole in the form of sensitive information stored on laptops and portable media such as thumb drives. More than 800,000 licenses for encryption software were purchased by agencies last year alone. Still, the brisk upswing came only after repeated headliners of gross security breaches and against a backdrop of increased risk of identity theft.

Various software from up to 10 leading vendors are available under steep discounts under the DAR (Data at Rest) Encryption program--run jointly by the General Services Administration and the Department of Defense--though the most popular products are hybrid packages that offer both full disk and file folder encryption.

For more on the DAR Encryption program:
- check out this Network World article [1]