Nope. I use a company-provided Macbook and don't have much of anything on it that is of any particular value to me.
Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
61–70 of 135 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#62Before you dive too far into full-disk encryption, you might want to contemplate the consequences of this research: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9876060-38.html The paper referenced is available at: http://citp.princeton.edu/pub/coldboot.pdf From that paper, the most salient sentence for this discussion is: "On all of our sample DRAMs, the decay rates were low enough that an attacker who cut power for 60 seconds…
There are always way to hack a computer: but we're just asked to take reasonable steps toward making it harder.
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#63I simply don't keep any information on my laptop hard drive. Everything valuable is at home or in the cloud. I assume that at any moment my laptop hard drive will crash or be stolen.
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#64I keep all of my passwords encrypted in 1Password, and I have one encrypted folder on my Mac with all of my sensitive documents in it. I didn't want to encrypt my entire hard drive or even my entire home directory because of the performance hit.
I do the same thing, but in GNU/Linux, using pwsafe for passwords and dm-crypt for disk encryption. IMO the one downside is that I have to remember to put stuff in the right place, e.g. moving dotfiles with sensitive data into the encrypted directory and creating a symlink back to ~.
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#65Truecrypt is awesome, great performance (especially if it can use your hardware is compatible with its optimization) and free. Really easy to use and supports come cool features like a hidden operating system (for if you get held and gun point and asked for your password)
You can also configure Truecrypt to work with multiboot - so if you have Ubuntu, Chromium OS and Windows 7 for example it will still work
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#66As a semi-professional nude photographer I have encrypted every hard disk I own, including my laptop's. It's part of my promise to the customers to keep their photos really safe. I am using Ubuntu and LuKs on all my machines because I find it very convenient to have a superb encryption mechanism built in. As a side note, I do all my picture editing in Gimp. While this is not commom among professional photographers, i…
Is there a significant style difference between using Gimp and Photoshop? I only know Photoshop, but I've always thought of Gimp as just program for doing basically the same work. I wouldn't think there'd be a difference in the final product.
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#67Before you dive too far into full-disk encryption, you might want to contemplate the consequences of this research: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9876060-38.html The paper referenced is available at: http://citp.princeton.edu/pub/coldboot.pdf From that paper, the most salient sentence for this discussion is: "On all of our sample DRAMs, the decay rates were low enough that an attacker who cut power for 60 seconds…
There are always way to hack a computer: but we're just asked to take reasonable steps toward making it harder.
Yes, but that's exactly why it's important to realize this only gives you some protection. The OP asked for his personal needs, not because of some company policy, which means he/she should know whether it really is effective.
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#68I don't encrypt a bit — I even got no login password. I've got all my stuff on a 50GB Dropbox, so if I lose my MBP I'll just sync a new machine. Don't have anything of particular importance on my drive: design PSDs (could be secret), stock resources (icon packs, graphical elements), my music and a inspirational folder.
I do the same (happy 50GB Dropbox user).
I haven't researched this, but is it possible to remotely delete a Dropbox drive? I.e. if my laptop is stolen, to use the site to wipe the data from the laptop? I assume it's possible.
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#69I don't encrypt a bit — I even got no login password. I've got all my stuff on a 50GB Dropbox, so if I lose my MBP I'll just sync a new machine. Don't have anything of particular importance on my drive: design PSDs (could be secret), stock resources (icon packs, graphical elements), my music and a inspirational folder.
I do the same (happy 50GB Dropbox user). I haven't researched this, but is it possible to remotely delete a Dropbox drive? I.e. if my laptop is stolen, to use the site to wipe the data from the laptop? I assume it's possible.
Yeah, I think so – but don't know for sure.
Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?
#70A bit off topic, but making it less likely you'll lose your laptop to begin with is important. Here are some ideas. Most laptop have a special slot that accepts a cable lock. I make use of it whenever I'm in a coffee shop and have to leave the machine for more than a moment. I loop it through bag straps and my jacket too. You want to look hard to deal with. Its also a good idea to make sure your laptop requires a pas…
In some cases you can use a pair of pruning shears to cut the plastic on the kensington lock slot, then take the laptop. It's usually plastic (although some laptops do use high tension steel these days)
I don't think anyone expects the lock to thwart a dedicated attacker. But the most common case of laptop stealing is someone wanting a new laptop, not your specifically. Your laptop just has to look harder to steal.