Encrypted File System (EFS) in Windows 10

Introduction

Everybody is talking about information security these days because it literally impacts anyone who uses (relatively) modern electronic devices. Of the many ideas to bolster information security, encryption is a recommended measure according to any security expert. 

Encryption is a strong information privacy safeguard, supports information integrity, and can even help you avoid regulatory fines if you are in a heavily regulated industry. Windows has kept up with this trend and offers users a couple different options for information encryption. Among these options in Windows 10 is Encrypted File System (EFS). 

This article will detail EFS in Windows 10 and will explore what it is. We’ll look at the File Encryption Key, EFS versus BitLocker, as well as how to enable EFS, how to back up your File Encryption Key and how to decrypt files.

A little about EFS

EFS is a file encryption service offered in Windows 10 and all previous versions of Windows going back to Windows 2000. Referred to as a cousin to BitLocker, EFS offers some notable functionality over BitLocker, but more on this later. EFS is a quick way to encrypt files and folders and is especially useful when these files are stored on a Windows 10 system with multiple users. This is because EFS is connected to the user, not machine, so multiple users could have their files encrypted without risking the other users gaining access. 

EFS takes an incremental approach to encryption. This means that it has the ability to encrypt individual files and folders and is not performed at the drive level. This offers greater user choice than other encryption methods.

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This encryption method is a fast, reliable way to encrypt on Windows 10 systems. Despite this fact, it is not without its security drawbacks. The file encryption (Read more...)