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Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#101

Post by 0942v8653 »

gaur wrote: post #100
coherentpony wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For others: Sine qua non is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for "[a condition] without which it could not be", or "but for..." or "without which [there is] nothing".

If a phrase is so foreign that you feel the need to italicize it, don't use it.

On the other hand, it's quite nice to be on Hacker News where someone will post the definition :) ... now I know what that phrase means when I hear it in another context.

Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#103

Post by BooneJS »

acomjean wrote: post #60

I use the Mac Disk Utility to create an encrypted volume. I use that volume to store sensitive files. Its just one file so its fairly easy to back up in its encrypted form. The main hassle is I have to open the drive and enter the password before using. But its used infrequently.

This is my method as well. +1

Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#104

Post by BooneJS »

acomjean wrote: post #60

I use the Mac Disk Utility to create an encrypted volume. I use that volume to store sensitive files. Its just one file so its fairly easy to back up in its encrypted form. The main hassle is I have to open the drive and enter the password before using. But its used infrequently.

This is my method as well. +1

Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#105

Post by thom »

A few years ago we were burgled and one of my laptops was stolen. The process of revoking keys and changing passwords (on a tiny borrowed netbook, no less) was painful enough that I would never risk going unencrypted again.

It's an install option on any modern OS, or something transparently enabled in your BIOS, the only time I notice it is on my Mac where I have to unlock twice occasionally if it's been asleep.

Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#106

Post by maerF0x0 »

discordance wrote: post #99
zeveb wrote: post #9

I'm running Debian, so I have LUKS full-disk encryption running; I consider it a sine qua non of running a personal computer. I wish it were a bit easier to enable per-user encrypted home directories as well (yes, layered: CPUs are fast, and security is worth the cost), but … I'm lazy.

May I ask a hypothetical? If you were stopped at a border crossing and asked to unlock your drive for inspection, would you do so?

No. I'd be calling my company's lawyer to obtain their counsel first. Its not up to me to disclose information I dont own to BPS.

Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#107

Post by fwn »

Flimm wrote: post #97
astrobase_go wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on which version of Android you're running, you may be pleasantly surprised. Manually encrypted an HTC One m9 (Lollipop) and found no noticeable performance decrement, and now with it enabled by default in Marshmallow it's unnoticeable.

The main annoyance with full-disk encryption on Android is that it disables several handy features of the lock screen, such as being able to take a photo directly from the lock screen.

I just checked that on three devices and I am certain that this is a problem unconnected to encyption. Not sure how, but you might be able to solve this somehow.

Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#108

Post by cyphar »

LVM on top of dm-crypt with LUKS. Both swap and my btrfs root partition are in the LUKS volume. While that works fine, I wish it wasn't necessary to use LVM. Once btrfs supports encrypted drives, I'll be closer to not needing raw LUKS or LVM (hopefully btrfs would just use the dm-crypt kernel APIs). But encrypted swap is very important (your encryption key or other sensitive data could end up on a decrypted part of your disk after your laptop dies suddenly). So currently I'm SOL if I want to use a swap partition, maybe I should add a loopback device in btrfs that is non-cow?

Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#109

Post by cyphar »

gargravarr wrote: post #53

I also set up FileVault on my Mac, which I don't particularly like because it uses my login password to encrypt the hard drive. I run Mint on my ThinkPad, and encrypted the hard drive at install-time (which is LUKS in the background). This means I have a separate password for the OS and my user data. The boot password is very long (it's a saying that is memorable to me) so is pretty difficult to brute-force, while my…

> A final thing to note - none of these methods stop a thief installing their own OS on your machine. Whilst this means your data is secure, you can make things a little bit harder for the thief by adding a boot or BIOS password to prevent them booting from a different medium. There are ways to reset this, admittedly, but since it won't get in your way (much), add another stumbling block for your enemy.

If you use UEFI with secure boot (and your own keys with the windows ones removed, and an administrative password set up in your firmware) then you're in theory protected against that attack as well. What's more, openSUSE Just Works™ with UEFI. I wanted to flash LibreBoot (a CoreBoot distribution that is free as in freedom) but I'm worried about bricking my laptop (as well as not being sure about how good Linux's support is for that).

Re: Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops?

#110

Post by sigjuice »

cookiemonsta wrote: post #95
yardie wrote: post #88

Macbook Pro running El Capitan. The firmware is password locked so no one can change the boot disk, the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro, is encrypted with FileVault2. I also have guest access enableD to entice the unauthorised user to login and connect to the internet. Where I can lock or nuke the laptop using iCloud. One thing I missed about the old OpenFirmware Macs was that you could personalise a message into the firmware b…

"The firmware is password locked" - how did you enable this?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455
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