this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025

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Do you encrypt your drives and why or why not? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I was recently intrigued to learn that only half of the respondents to a survey said that they used disk encryption. Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows have been increasingly using encryption by default. On the other hand, while most Linux installers I've encountered include the option to encrypt, it is not selected by default.

Whether it's a test bench, beater laptop, NAS, or daily driver, I encrypt for peace of mind. Whatever I end up doing on my machines, I can be pretty confident my data won't end up in the wrong hands if the drive is stolen or lost and can be erased by simply overwriting the LUKS header. Recovering from an unbootable state or copying files out from an encrypted boot drive only takes a couple more commands compared to an unencrypted setup.

But that's just me and I'm curious to hear what other reasons to encrypt or not to encrypt are out there.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah all my drives are encrypted with LUKS mostly because of home burglaries (bad area and whatnot). I still keep backups regardless on drives that are also encrypted

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I encrypt everything, with unique complex passwords, that I have a safe mnemonic system for remembering and retrieving.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I do, laptops and workstations.

It's just too easy not to, and there's almost no downsides to it. (I only need to reboot, once a month or two.)

Well, unless you consider the possibility of forgetting the password a downside, so for that reason I keep the password in a password manager.

In case my laptop was stolen, there would quite a couple fewer things to worry about. Especially things like client's data which could be under NDA's, etc...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

are you guys using the bios ssd encryption option or a software solution?

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I was recently intrigued to learn that only half of the respondents to a survey said that they used NO disk encryption.

Is the other half alright?

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I do not as I do not have any sensitive data and what data is sensitive are the digital documents which are securely encrypted by default via id card and its passwords.

If I start having something worth protecting I will turn on fedoras encryption. But until then anyone who manages to steal my 100 eur thinkpad and guess its password is welcome to try out linux and see if they like it I guess.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

No. I prefer the quickest way to share my data between different computers and operating systems on my home network. I will also mention that my network is not accessible over the internet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Speaking as someone who doesn't encrypt their desktop but is thinking about it:

you can't share (readable) data over one's home network if the sending PC is disk-encrypted?

For example, are you saying that if I send a video file from my PC, which is disk-encrypted, over LAN to my NAS, then the NAS would not be able to read said file?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Because it requires generating, memorizing and entering a secure password. Because Linux typically doesn't support fingerprint readers or other biometrics.

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