The ultimate encryption freeware TrueCrypt has abruptly announced that the software is no longer secure after Microsoft ended support for Windows XP. This sudden news has sent shockwaves to the online community as TrueCrypt bears the honor of being the most popular free and open source encryption software.
The announcement posted at truecrypt.sourceforge.net says.
WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is no longer secure as it may contain unfixed security issues
This page exists only to help migrate existing data encrypted by TrueCrypt. The development of TrueCrypt was ended in 5/2014 after Microsoft terminated support of Windows XP. Windows 8/7/Vista and later offer integrated support for encrypted disks and virtual disk images. Such integrated support is also available on other platforms (click here for more information).You should migrate any data encrypted by TrueCrypt to encrypted disks or virtual disk images supported on your platform.
The sudden announcement got people speculating that the website may have been hacked. On the other hand, some said that some rogue member of TrueCrypt team has playfully updated the site page with such a shocking message.
Howeverthe consensus developed in the last 24 hours has shredded off the possibility of any hacking activity and the message displayed on the webpage may well be true. Ironically, it was only last month when TrueCrypt underwent the first phase of an independent security audit, and was cleared of any backdoors or intentional flaws.
Why an end like thisTrueCrypt wasn’t really an ordinary program that just lived its time. It was actually the most popular application in its category that was widely used tool to communicate securely and encrypt sensitive files or folders.
So, why an end like this? Did something unusual happen?
There are numerous stories going around, some say that TrueCrypt just got stuck by a legal order and are under some sort of legal hassle that is preventing them to disclose the true story. Another view that TrueCrypt may well be under some NSA influence. Some forums simply put the blame on the developers saying that they just decided to close the application without realizing the hasty fashion in which it was done. While some experts raised questions on the recently concluded audit and argue if there was something deadly that came out in front of the audit team that might have possibly forced such move.
Currently, the home page advocates moving from TrueCrypt to Microsoft BitLocker. There is also a new decrypt-only version of TrueCrypt available on the website for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. However, under such circumstances users are best advised to stay away TrueCrypt and shift to some other free file encryption software until this big cloud of speculations pass away.
TrueCrypt must not die says the Internet community.
