this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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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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[–] socphoenix@midwest.social 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I started encrypting once I moved to having a decent number of solid state drives as the tech can theoretically leave blocks unerased once they go bad. Before that my primary risk factor was at end of life recycling which I usually did early so I wasn’t overly concerned about tax documents/passwords etc being left as I’d use dd to write over the platters prior to recycling.

[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You got me curious. Passwords yeah, but tax documents? Why?

[–] socphoenix@midwest.social 1 points 1 day ago

This was a few drives ago but there was a point in time when most places were giving me digital copies of tax documents which I could upload to tax prep software but things like TurboTax didn’t have an auto import. So you’d need to download them then re-upload them to the correct service. Now they do it automatically so the only thing that would match that now now is receipts for expenses/donations and what not that I need to keep track of for manual entry.

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[–] mholiv@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (10 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.

[–] Limeade3425@lemmy.one 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I just encrypt devices that leave the house. I do have access to a hard drive crusher if I lose a drive (recently crushed a tablet that wouldn't power on)

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[–] cow@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Almost everything that can be is: laptops, desktop, servers (LUKS), phone (grapheneos)

[–] Cysioland@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 day ago

I encrypt my workstations and backups thereof on external devices. To protect against theft or a lazy state-level adversary

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I have no significant private data on my disks. They can be wiped whether encrypted or not if they're stolen. And I like that in theory if my pc explodes I can recover the data with only the drive.

[–] netvor@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day 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...

[–] SitD@lemy.lol 1 points 1 day ago (5 children)

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

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[–] LiamMayfair@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 day 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.

[–] data1701d@startrek.website 1 points 1 day ago

It’s a smidge more difficult on Debian if you want to use a non-ext4 filesystem - granted for most people, ext4’s probably still fine. I use it on my desktop, which doesn’t have encryption.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 2 days ago (6 children)

I don't even know how to do it

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago

It's one of those things where it depends on the computer. My old box that's running win 7 has nothing but music and backed up media files on it, isn't connected to the internet at all, and there's really no point to it being encrypted.

My laptop leaves the house, and is connected, so it gets the treatment. My general purpose PC is, though that was more just because of a random choice rather than a carefully chosen decision. I figured I'd try it for a few weeks, then nuke it if it was a problem. It hasn't been, and I haven't needed to do anything to it that would require a change.

The other people in the house have chosen not to.

I'm not certain I would encrypt my main desktop again, just because it's one more thing to do, and I'm getting lazy lol. I don't have any sensitive files at all, and if things in the world get so bad that some agency is after me, I'm going to be hiding out up in this holler I know, not worrying about leaving a computer behind. Won't be power anyway, and the only shit they'd find is some pirated files.

I'd be more worried about my phone and my main tablet than any of the PCs, and those would either go with me, or get melted down before I left. Thermite is cheap and easy.

[–] BioMyth@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I don't for a pretty simple reason. I have a wife, if something ever happened to me then she could end up a creek without a paddle. So by not having it encrypted then, anyone kinda technical can just pull data off the drive.

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[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

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

[–] patatahooligan@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

I encrypt all my filesystems, boot partitions excluded. I started with my work laptop. It made the most sense because there is a real possibility that it gets lost or stolen at some point. But once I learned how simple encryption is, I just started doing it everywhere. It's probably not gonna come into play ever for my desktop, but it also doesn't really cost me anything to be extra safe.

[–] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 day 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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[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago (1 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.

[–] furrowsofar@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Bittlocker is a pain. Simply booting a maintainance disk requied me to use the recovery codes to get back into windows.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It has locked me out for attaching a USB device once or twice. Seems a bit extreme.

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