Endpoint Encryption

Good Morning,

I would to buy and install SEE in standalone version on my pc. How it works with a backup situation? For instance. I backup my pc on an external drive linked via USB to my pc with Symantec System Recovery. Suppose I have installed SEE on my pc and then i've encrypted my disk with full encryption in AES 256. My disk when is in use is not encrypted, or better, the files are available and readable and the decryption happens automatically, then, when Symantec System Recovery do an hot backup, it take the files (or the entire drive) and do a backup on the external drive. But, what happen if I would recover the entire backup (or single file with granular recovery feature) of my pc, on another pc that have installed Symantec System Recovery too? The file backed up results encrypted and no one can browse into the folders, and it's possible only restore the files by my pc that know the decryption key?

Also another question. Someone can tell me which is the procedure to uninstall SEE from a pc without corrupt something or lost all data?

Thank's for the support.

Luigi Celeste

Hi Luigi,

Symantec has 2 encryption solutions, one is SEE which is for managed environment with server-client configuration, and the other is SED (Symantec Encryption Desktop) that works fine with the standalone machine, which is suggested in your case.

Once the drive is encrypted the Windows MBR will be replaced with SED MBR and the disk will have an addition login screen from Symantec. This will not encrypt files on the disk and once you login to Symantec all the files remains unencrypted, and so will be the backup taken from Windows.

There is a Fileshare encryption feature in SED, which can encrypt the File with the users keys and which will remain encrypted even if copied to other machine or taken a backup and only the user having the keys to the files will be able to access it.

Please find below Symantec File Share Encryption (previously PGP NetShare) Compatibility FAQ article.

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.TECH148974.html

Regarding How to uninstall Symantec Endpoint Encryption - Full Disk (SEE-FD) from a client, please refer to the below article.

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.TECH104081.html

Warning: All drives must be decrypted in order for the software to be removed.

Thank's for the reply Sayyed!

You hit all the points on which I had doubts! great!

I've just tested SEE in trial version on a virtual machine Windows 7 in standalone mode and it seems works really well the full disk encryption feature. Nevertheless I tested also the fileshare encryption feature and it works well with files of small size, but when I try to decrypt files with large size on an another pc, the software crash and I can't decrypt that files on that pc. For the exernal drives I have to find absolutely another solution more reliable of this.

I tested also the uninstallation and all is returned as earlier. This is perfect.

I think i'll purchase this product for the full disk encryption feature, that I saw it works good, but for the external drive encryption I have to find a solution more reliable in terms of availability.

Thank's a lot for the support!

Luigi Celeste

Hi Luigi,

You are welcome.

Just wanted to add about the External Drive encryption, in some cases, a folder with an extremely large amount of files in a directory may cause difficulties when attempting to encrypt the folder with FileShare Encryption. However in Symantec Encryption Desktop, you can encrypted the external drive the same way as the internal drive, by adding a user to the disk and, once connected to the other machine you will need to provide the credentials for the user to access the drive.

Hi Sayyed,

I've just purchased Symantec Desktop Encryption, that It seemed the best solution for my needs. After installation, the program asked me to reboot the system (Windows 7 SP1), and I did it. when reboot was completed, I did the login into my account, and all was starts well, but all the Internet connections are no longer available! Neither the Ethernet card neither the Wireless card allow me to access on the net (also on the LAN). The yellow triangle appear on the network symbol and I can't access to the internet (and into the LAN) until I uninstall the software. After uninstallation, all return as earlier. Why this behavior ??

Thank's for the support

Gigi