this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
170 points (98.3% liked)

Linux

49467 readers
581 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I have stopped encrypting my drives, because if anything goes wrong and the system won't boot it makes recovery more difficult. It's a dual boot machine with Windows 11, and I had a lot of awkwardness with Bitlocker that led to me deciding to abandon encryption in both OSs. I save sensitive files to encrypted volumes in VeraCrypt.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago

My drives are not encrypted because it's a hassle if things start going wrong. My NAS is software raid so the individual disks mean nothing anyway. The only drive that is encrypted is my backup disk and I'm not really sure if it was needed.

[–] dbkblk@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I use encryption on laptops, because they can be stolen in the train, bus, etc. On work desktop, I do so as well, because there are many people around. However, on everything that stay at home, I prefer not to use it to simplifiy things and get more performance.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Yes, and for the life of me I don't understand why there isn't a default LUKS with hibernate partition in the Debian installer.

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yeah, on my laptop - because I travel with it and confidential data (like from my customers) could land in hands its not supposed to

No, in case of my desktop, because it's easier to access it in case of failure

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Lawn_and_disorder@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago

Had nosey cops trying to get into my phones illegally recently.. do not understand people that dont encrypt shit

[–] mholiv@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (11 children)

I would strongly encourage people to encrypt their on site data storage drives even if they never leave the house and theft isn’t a realistic thing that can happen.

The issue is hard drive malfunction. If a drive has sensitive data on it and malfunctions. It becomes very hard to destroy that data.

If that malfunctioning hard drive was encrypted you can simply toss it into an e-waste bin worry free. If that malfunctioning drive was not encrypted you need to break out some heavy tools tool ensure that data is destroyed.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I encrypted my professional laptop's drive in order to prevent access to company data and code in case of theft. And I'll probably encrypt my personal laptop as well because the SSH key can access company code.

As for the desktop, I didn't and probably never will, because theft is less likely and that would be a pain to handle for nightly backups (it is turned on with Wake-on-LAN and then a cron backs up my home directory to my NAS).

Finally, I won't encrypt my NAS as well for the same reason: it would quickly become a hassle as I would have to manually decrypt the drives every time it boots after a power outage.

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

I used to, but then I nuked my install accidentally and I couldn't recover the encrypted data. I nuke my installs fairly regularly. I just did again this past week while trying to resize my / and my /home partitions. I've resigned myself to only encrypting specific files and directories on demand.

My phone is fully encrypted though.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

I encrypt my laptop and desktops and I think it’s worth it. I regret encrypting my servers because they need passwords to turn on.

[–] lengau@midwest.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

Depends on the use case. Definitely for my laptop though. In fact the decryption keys only exist in two places:

  1. Inside my TPM
  2. In a safe deposit box at a bank.
[–] Anonymouse@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

I do on all my devices that can as a matter of practice, not for any real threat. I'm interested to learn about how to set it up and use it on a daily basis including how to do system recoveries. I guess it's largely academic.

Once I switched to linux as my daily driver, I didn't have a need to do piracy anymore since all the software I need is FOSS.

[–] jollyrogue@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

I do encrypt my drives, and it’s not as transparent in Linux as it is in the others. I’m sure I could get a TPM setup for seamless boots, but I haven’t done that yet.

For mobile drivers, I still encrypt, but that locks them to one OS since LUKS isn’t cross platform. There is VeraCrypt for cross-platform encryption, but that’s one more thing to manage and install.

[–] pemptago@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes. I encrypt because theft. I know PopOS and Mint make it 1-click ez. ...unless of course you want home and root on a separate drives. That scales difficulty real fast. There's plenty of tutorials, and I managed, but I had to patch together different ones to get a basic setup-- Never mind understanding exactly what I did and repeating it (the latest challenge I've been dragging my feet on). I do hope this is an area that sees more development in the near future.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bjwest@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I don't encrypt my entire drive, but I do have encrypted directories for my sensitive data. If I did encrypt an entire drive, it would only be the drive containing my data not the system drive.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

I don't even know how to do it

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Asahi Linux doesn't support encryption and getting it to work requires a lot of steps and that I reinstall it which I don't have time for, so I don't have it enabled on my laptop, and if it gets stolen or confiscated I'm fucked.

I have it enabled on my server and phone.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Every endpoint device I use is using full disk encryption, yes.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›