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 8 months ago by monovergent@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
233 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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[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 1 points 8 months ago

I always encrypt my computer SSD as well as my external backup drive. I just wish that when installing a Linux distro and when selecting encryption that it would work with multiple drives

[–] Extrasvhx9he@lemmy.today 1 points 8 months 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

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Only encrypt the home partition, for the root partition it just unnecessarily slows down the system.

Also, I think, there could be different approaches instead of encryption. AFAIK, android doesn't use encryption underneath, but uses a semi-closed bootloader (which means, if you install a different OS, all user data gets wiped). I'm currently investigating the feasibility of such an approach in the long term.

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[–] LiamMayfair@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yes. Encrypting your entire hard drive has basically been a tickbox in the Fedora installer for a long time now. No reason why I wouldn't do it. It's, easy, doesn't give me any problems and improves my devices security with defence-in-depth. No brainer.

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[–] loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months 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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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You can just store the key in your TPM and then you don't have to memorize anything.

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[–] obsolete@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months 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.

[–] EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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?

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