14 DAY TRIAL // After four full years of development, TrueCrypt can finally confirm the release of the only open-source disk encryption software that runs on all today's major operating systems: Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. TrueCrypt 5.0 adds new features, such as the ability to encrypt a system partition or entire system drive (with pre-boot authentication), pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100% and more. Mac OS X users however, don't benefit from all the features just yet.
"The newly implemented ability to encrypt system partitions and system drives provides the highest level of security and privacy, as all files, including any temporary files that Windows and applications create on system drives (typically, without the user's knowledge or consent), swap files, etc., are permanently encrypted," says the official announcement.
TrueCrypt 5.0's basic feature is of course its ability to encrypt a system partition/drive with pre-boot authentication, which means that anyone who wants to gain access and use the system, read and write files needs to enter the correct password each time before the system starts.
In other words, the program uses on-the-fly encryption, which means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted right before it is loaded or saved, without any user intervention. Sadly for Mac OS X users though, the ability to encrypt a system partition/drive with pre-boot authentication is not yet available to them.
TrueCrypt also notes that new volumes created by this version of TrueCrypt can be encrypted only in XTS mode. Still, if you've created volumes using previous versions of TrueCrypt, you'll be able to mount them again, using the latest version of TrueCrypt.
Those looking to use it at its full potential should know that TrueCrypt 5.0 now uses the SHA-512 hash algorithm, replacing SHA-1. Starting with 5.0, SHA-1 is no longer available when creating new volumes.
The open source encryption software (the first available for Mac OS X) is available for download right HERE.