Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?

#131

Post by runjake » Mon, Sep 13, 2010, 4:09 PM UTC

all wrote: post #60

Before 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…

The poster mentions they wish to defend against theft and lost.

The attacks you cite are more applicable if he were worried about intelligence agencies intercepting his data. And with rumored incestuous relationships with the corporate world, that might not be a bad idea, if he has valuable IP.

Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?

#132

Post by EvanK » Mon, Sep 13, 2010, 5:21 PM UTC

Honestly, TrueCrypt will stop all but the most determined and sophisticated criminals. So unless you have state secrets on your laptop, TC should be sufficient. Unless they have a wrench: http://xkcd.com/538/

Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?

#133

Post by FernandoEscher » Mon, Sep 13, 2010, 11:34 PM UTC

Since I use Ubuntu, I'm using encfs to encrypt single folders. You just have to mount the encrypted folder into a visible how. There is a how-to: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FolderEncryption

There you can find a method to also encrypt your whole home folder. Maybe it might work for you macbook.

Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?

#134

Post by mark_l_watson » Wed, Sep 15, 2010, 2:16 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #93

mark_l_watson wrote: post #85

I just keep sensitive data on an encrypted volume and use soft links. Last year I wrote up how I do this for OS X: http://markwatson.com/blog/2009/10/securing-your-mac-laptop.... Really simple idea, works for me, and the relative amount of data I need encrypted is small.

Generally not a great strategy (far better than nothing, though). It's hard to predict what data is going to end up being sensitive, and it's hard to predict where that data is going to end up being stored. By way of example, you haven't protected any of the session cookies stored in your browser; another user, following your advice, could lose their Google Mail account and then quickly thereafter the accounts of any…

Thank you - very good advice.

Re: Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk?

#135

Post by all » Sat, Sep 25, 2010, 1:45 PM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #112

all wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The threat is not against the Plans to the Empire but the password for the encryption system. That, as the video shows, can be done and without any particular haste. As the article suggests, freezing the RAM lengthens the decay process. The method is likely to have been known by three-letter agencies for some time now. The good guys are seldom, if ever, ahead of the bad guys, so it seems likely that the latter know i…

The OP is worried about thieves, not three-letter-agencies.

True, but the point of the article is that both now have this level of know-how. So all bets are again off once physical security is compromised - regardless of whether its a farmboy from Langley or Nebraska.