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 1 day ago by monovergent@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
213 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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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[–] communism@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I encrypt all my drives. Me and the people I know get occasionally raided by the police. Plus I guess also provides protection for nosy civilians who get their hands on my devices. Unlike most security measures, there is hardly any downside to encrypting your drives—a minor performance hit, not noticeable on modern hardware, and having to type in a password upon boot, which you normally have to do anyway.

[–] twinnie 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Where do you live that you’re getting raided by the police? This sounds like one of those situations where they might use the wrench technique.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 6 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I don't want to say where I live for anonymity reasons, but I will note that it's fairly standard for political dissidents to be raided by any government so it doesn't actually particularly narrow down my location.

What's the wrench technique?

[–] netvor@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] communism@lemmy.ml 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Ah lol sure. It depends on what level of state repression you're looking at. Regular cops will just not bother trying to decrypt a drive if they don't have the password and you don't freely give it up (you have the right to refuse to provide a password here, it's under the same kind of principle as having the right to not incriminate yourself), but I'm sure military intelligence etc will go to the wrench technique. Also deniable encryption for anything particularly sensitive is good for the old wrench technique.

[–] poinck@lemm.ee 2 points 3 hours ago

How do you achieve the deniable encryption on you Linux machine?

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