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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?

#141

Post by majurg »

tmaly wrote: post #138

I originally had the encryption turned on for my macbook I purchased back in 2015. It ran fast enough that I did not mind it. The thing that ultimately convinced me not to use it was a seasoned apple store employee. He said if something goes wrong and you have it turned on, we cannot recover your data for you. I am more risk averse, so I went with not encrypting the entire drive. If I did need some encryption on OSX,…

Why not just regularly back up your machine? I wouldn't expect apple store techs to recover my data anyway if I had to bring in a machine for repairs.

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

#142

Post by exodust »

cyphar wrote: post #111
exodust wrote: post #67

No encryption here. For performance reasons I don't want encryption throttling my laptop CPU, or causing other issues. I use the standard Windows logon password, but no encryption of drives. I use keepass for my password encryption, and I bought Kruptos 2 Pro for whenever I need to encrypt individual files or folders. It works with dropbox, so I more of less have everything covered without needing to encrypt the whol…

I've never felt performance issues with full disk encryption, and I personally wouldn't feel safe carrying my laptop if I didn't have it.

It's good you haven't "felt" performance issues, but technically there would be a difference. I just prefer a slick, efficiently powered laptop using only the power it needs to do work. My laptop has 3 disks - 2 SSD and 1 HDD, that's too much to encrypt.

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

#143

Post by gaur »

zeveb wrote: post #140
gaur wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I contend that ' sine qua non ' was the mot juste in that situation.

I contend that most Leute would find it untragbar for you to pepper your Schrift with Wörtern from any random Fremdsprache. But somehow it's considered acceptable if the Fremdsprache in question is French or Latin.

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

#144

Post by ThatGeoGuy »

tmaly wrote: post #138

I originally had the encryption turned on for my macbook I purchased back in 2015. It ran fast enough that I did not mind it. The thing that ultimately convinced me not to use it was a seasoned apple store employee. He said if something goes wrong and you have it turned on, we cannot recover your data for you. I am more risk averse, so I went with not encrypting the entire drive. If I did need some encryption on OSX,…

> He said if something goes wrong and you have it turned on, we cannot recover your data for you.

Contrary to the belief of the person you spoke to, this is a feature of encryption, not a bug. And you are not more risk averse by leaving encryption off, you're taking a bigger risk and assuming that the hardware will fail and you'll lose everything important on disk before you are able to back it up. In this scenario, it is more likely your laptop will get lost or stolen and you will wish that the info was non-recoverable by whoever ends up owning your laptop.

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

#145

Post by DrScump »

na85 wrote: post #116
0942v8653 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nah, it's just the standard HN-ian modus operandi of misusing Latin phrases like a priori which doesn't actually mean "prior" or "prior knowledge" despite the incessant use here on this site. How else would I attempt to appear superior? :^)

A relevant documentary on the importance of proper Latin grammar and usage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8

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

#147

Post by gdc »

sjmulder wrote: post #12

My Windows machines are not encrypted because the home edition they run does not support BitLocker. Microsoft should reconsider. Most of my other installations (Mac, Linux, FreeBSD) are encrypted (LVM, ZFS, etc) or will be soon. To be honest this only really helps against casual attackers (lost/stolen machine) because much of my personal data is in OneDrive which will offer me no protections against governments or de…

Pro supports bitlocker.

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

#148

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

ShaneOG wrote: post #2

I use Mac OS X FileVault2, with a firmware password. It's incredibly easy to set up and should be good enough to protect my data from the majority of thieves. Coupled with encrypted Time Machine backups and Arq[0] I feel relatively ok about losing my machine. [0] https://www.arqbackup.com

+1 for Arq

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

#149

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

codegeek wrote: post #5
ShaneOG wrote: post #2

I use Mac OS X FileVault2, with a firmware password. It's incredibly easy to set up and should be good enough to protect my data from the majority of thieves. Coupled with encrypted Time Machine backups and Arq[0] I feel relatively ok about losing my machine. [0] https://www.arqbackup.com

Thx. I am a relatively new Mac user and didn't realize this existed. Will try this. Any weird issues or edge cases to consider before turning this on ?

I have used FileVault since it was released many many years ago. In the beginning there was a fairly severe performance penalty, but it's solid now. I highly recommend using it. On an SSD, at least, but spinning disks + FileVault is border line unusable IMO.

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

#150

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

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…

So is the guest user only for when you leave the machine powered on? Just seems like the firmware password conflicts with the idea of the guest account.

I have gone back and forth on whether or not to enable the guest user. On one hand, it feels like giving an attacker another potential entry point to escalate privileges.

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