I just installed Secure Device, v1.4 on a PC at work. After installing it, I looked at the encrypted volume and found the string "SECDEV " starting at the fourth byte of the file. I'd prefer that this file look like some temporary file that got left on the disk by a program that didn't clean up properly after itself, and not be identifiable as an encrypted volume.
Problems with that: 1. SecDev needs a way to easily ID it's own files. Encrypting a known ID string would be a weakness (known plaintext) so it's better to have a plaintext identifyer. 2. If someone thinks it's a lost TMP file they will delete it. Not a risk you want. It's better if they think it's a strange type of swap file or something needed by an application. [..] Source is available... so you can change the ID string in source to something innocuous yet unique and recompile it.
As you've probably guessed, I'm not supposed to have any personal files on my work computer, and an entire encrypted volume would undoubtedly make someone go ballistic if they discovered it. When I want to use my encrypted file system, I reboot off of a floppy, and all Secure Device programs and drivers are kept on the floppy. The only thing that has to be left on the hard drive is the encrypted volume itself.
Well, there's a risk of someone seeing a mysterious file and deleting it anyway... assuming they don't go ballistic over it anyhow. There's also a risk of someone peering over your shoulder and noticing that something's afoot as well, is there not?