How to set up military-grade encryption on Windows 11

Encryption scrambles data (text, documents, images, and videos), so they're useless to everyone but the intended owner and recipient.

AES became an encryption standard for securing top-secret information between government agencies in 2001 after the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) adopted it. Agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA) are particularly fond of AES because it typically uses 256-bit keya to encrypt and decrypt data.

There are also 128-bit and 192-bit versions of AES. 128-bit is the minimum acceptable level of encryption for securing data containing military intelligence.

Why is AES called "military grade encryption"?

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In terms of marketing, AES doesn't sound very appealing, especially to non-technical consumers. On the other hand, the term "military grade" immediately conjures up images of commandos wearing armor, holding guns, with majestic ranks. And that's exactly the level of credibility you want to have to protect your data.

If you're a company in the business of making devices that you want people to trust, you need a term that presents an instant, unbeatable security image. In this case, it's the term 'military grade'.

Other similar terms that companies use to describe cryptographic frameworks for their products and services include 'bank grade' and 'defense grade'. These terms provide non-technical consumers with a vivid idea of ​​the level of security they receive when using such labeled product or service, such as Samsung Knox, the system. security protect sensitive data on Galaxy devices

Is AES encryption secure?

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AES is currently one of the most secure ways to encrypt data and is advertised as 'unhackable'.

Imagine AES encryption as a jigsaw puzzle with 2256 nail-sized pieces in various shades of matte gray. To make it even harder, only the creator and the people who own the picture can solve the puzzle. Of course, anyone with the puzzle pieces can try to solve the puzzle. But without the original picture, any attempt will be disappointing - not to mention a waste of time and resources - all in vain.

Or to make it easier to visualize, imagine it's like playing Wordle with no green or yellow feedback when you type a letter. Instead, your cells will remain gray after each attempt, unless you enter the complete word in the correct combination and order of letters.

This idea would make even the best Wordle players shudder. The same goes for most cybercriminals. It is simply not worth the effort and is unlikely to succeed.

How to set up BitLocker AES encryption on Windows 11

You can set up AES encryption on Windows 11 by enabling BitLocker. BitLocker is the default encryption tool for computers with Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Enterprise, and Windows 11 Education editions of the operating system. (If you're running Windows 11 Home, skip this section and move on to the next.)

But before you start, you should check that your computer has BitLocker enabled by default. Microsoft enables this encryption by default for some PCs. Additionally, you'll need to sign in to your Microsoft account on your computer.

Here's how to set up BitLocker on Windows 11:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Storage > Advanced Storage Settings > Disks & Volumes.
2. Set up the drive you want to encrypt.
3. To encrypt the operating system drive: Select drive C: > Properties > scroll down to BitLocker > click Turn on BitLocker.
4. Follow the prompts to back up your recovery key
5. Choose the encryption options that suit your security needs

How to set up device encryption on Windows 11 Home

BitLocker is not available on Windows 11 Home. So the user has to do with Device Encryption. The process goes as follows:

1. Start > Settings > Privacy & Security > Device Encryption.
2. Enable Device Encryption.
3. Follow the prompts to back up your recovery key
4. Choose the encryption options that suit your security needs

Before you set up AES encryption on your computer.

The 6-step process of setting up encryption on Windows 11 is quite simple. You can choose to encrypt all or part of your hard drive. In addition, you must consider the following:

1. Encoding time

Setting up AES on your Windows computer will take several hours or longer, depending on the size of the data you want to encrypt. So it's best to organize everything after you've finished important work.

2. Protect the recovery key

The most important part of setting up BitLocker or Device Encryption is how you back up your recovery key. Saving the key to your Microsoft account is a safe bet, but you're still essentially trusting a third party.

The advantage of this option is that you can always get the recovery key from your Microsoft account on any computer.

Alternatively, you can choose to save your recovery keys on a flash drive; print or write on paper. However, the potential downside of these options is that your data cannot be recovered if something goes wrong with the flash drive or the sticky note. Even Microsoft support can't help you recover your lost key. You should consider making several copies of the recovery key and storing them securely in separate places.

Should computers be encrypted?

You should set up BitLocker or Device Encryption on your computer if you are managing or dealing with sensitive data or business secrets. If you just got a new computer, you should also consider setting up encryption before transferring or downloading content on it.

Encrypting a new device is faster, but you can still encrypt your old device with your existing data. In the latter case, this process may slow down your computer's performance until the encryption is complete. While you can continue to use your computer, don't run heavy software if you want to speed it up.

Jessica Tanner

Update 05 August 2022