To encrypt or not to encrypt, that is the question

[MurphCID]

How many here encrypt their /home folder? I have not done it yet, but I like the thought of the extra security. POP OS allows you to encrypt your HD right off the bat, a feature I appreciate. So how many of us take that extra step? Curious minds want to know.

[xenopeek]

Why not make this a poll? With say 3 answers:
- I use home encryption
- I use full disk encryption
- I use neither

Or something like that.

Linux Mint installer also offers the option for full disk encryption.

[MurphCID]

Why not make this a poll? With say 3 answers:
- I use home encryption
- I use full disk encryption
- I use neither

Or something like that.

Linux Mint installer also offers the option for full disk encryption.

How do I do that please? I like the idea. I must have missed the full disk encryption when I was installing, I saw encrypt /home folder.

[rickNS]

How do I do that please?

In the same area where you would click to add attachments, under the body of your post, click poll creation. You would edit the original post to do it.

[xenopeek]

If you edit the first post of this topic, you can add the poll as per above screenshot. Click the pencil icon in top right corner of the first post to edit it.

I think the Linux Mint installer now has the full disk encryption option under advanced options, you have to click that to get to it.

[Pierre]

on my PCs .. I'm Not using any encryption . .

as I've no need for that extra level .. of protection.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Going with the suggested three choices, I use neither.

Most of my data does not need encrypting and encrypting it would just make it a pain in the neck to access, especially when upgrading the OS or if the computer dies. Also, if you have to send the computer in for repair, you would have to provide the encryption key to the whomever is doing the repair.

The only data I have that really needs encryption is my financial data and I put that into an encrypted container using Vercrypt.

While this is a result of pure luck, when my laptop died had to be sent in for repair, with the exception of calendar entries and sticky notes, I didn't have any data in /home; all my data is on three other internal drives. All I had to do was yank those drives before shipping it out for repair.

[rene]

Very much first of all note what you are defending against with encryption though: your powered-down device being accessible to others after you forgetting it a coffee shop or it being stolen or some such. Specifically, that it doesn't do a single thing as to "online security" for whichever definition of such and that it moreover introduces quite a few technical hurdles to overcome as to e.g. data recovery if you fubar your machine yourself at some point.

Also see e.g. viewtopic.php?p=2062872#p2062872 for more information on technical differences between full-disk and home directory encryption (and how I would myself at this point basically never advise latter at least; former sparingly and in specific situations only).

[AndyMH]

The only data I have that really needs encryption is my financial data and I put that into an encrypted container using Vercrypt.

+1
Exactly what I do. I am not a fan of either full disk or home encryption. It just adds a layer of complexity that make life very difficult if not impossible when things go wrong. Again, one of those topics where we get too many posts from newbies who have encrypted their system and then broken it.

[absque fenestris]

I use full disk encryption on my old Acer netbook. Rescued from the trash and supplemented with parts from other questionable machines, it was experimental from the start anyway - so encryption didn't matter much.
The device then ran with Linux far better than expected, is still used mobile and I don't need to worry about a possible loss: the device itself is worth nothing, the data is.
The backups are safe at home and if a potential thief wants to spend his time cracking the encrypted SSD, so be it.


Addendum: I'm one of those people who turn off their machines completely and never use any sleep modes. It's a matter of education: when you leave the room, turn off all the devices and turn off the lights.

[AZgl1800]

IMO,

encryption poses too many risks so I just won't use it....

I keep things safe in other ways.

[rene]

Ununderstood and/or exaggerated security-measures are the root of all evil. And not just in an IT context...

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Addendum: I'm one of those people who turn off their machines completely and never use any sleep modes. It's a matter of education: when you leave the room, turn off all the devices and turn off the lights.

My Daddy was a fanatic for turning off lights when leaving a room. I'm pretty much the same except if I'm going to be returning to the room within a few minutes (say 10-15 minutes or less), I'll leave the lights on (that is a holdover from the days of incandescent and CFL bulbs that wore out sooner the more often you switched them on and off). I also leave a light on when I leave the house so I can see to navigate inside when I get back home.

It's a different story for my computers. I shut my laptop and notebooks off when I'm not using them to hopefully extend their life. I also disconnect or power down the AC adapter.

I always ran my desktops 24/7 since I often had processes running at various times of the day or night (such as TV program recording) and so I didn't have to wait for the computer to boot up when I went to use it. I would power down the monitors since they didn't need to be on when I wasn't using them plus they booted up far faster than the computer.

When I had my first foot surgery, Daddy had taken me there and back home afterward. When he left after getting me back home, he turned off every switch he saw in my house. When I woke up later from a nap, I was freezing my ample asset off. There is what looks like a light switch on the hall wall opposite the furnace that controls power going to the furnace; he had switched it off (I made a label for it later).

Edit: to fix goofed up quote.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

IMO,

encryption poses too many risks so I just won't use it....

I keep things safe in other ways.

I'm not trying to be a smart aleck or a sagacious donkey but I'm curious what those risks are. Also, would you care to share other ways for keeping things safe (I'll never be too old to learn).

[JoeFootball]

+1 for VeraCrypt containers.

[SuperJoker]

Encryption is buggy.

[rene]

Most buggies on the other hand are not encrypted. As in... you may wish to note in some more detail what you mean by that.

[absque fenestris]

Encryption is buggy.

I really need to share this with my netbook. It doesn't know about it yet. Terrible!

[SuperJoker]

Encryption is buggy.

I really need to share this with my netbook. It doesn't know about it yet. Terrible!

I knew it that there are people talking to machines! It's the same people that block you without reason when you join a forum. Or maybe their machines know the reason.

[Portreve]

How many here encrypt their /home folder? I have not done it yet, but I like the thought of the extra security. POP OS allows you to encrypt your HD right off the bat, a feature I appreciate. So how many of us take that extra step? Curious minds want to know.

While I appreciate your having added the poll (these things are really fantastic for crystallizing public opinion rapidly) as a matter of personal policy, I don't discuss what, if any, security arrangements I use.

That said, one good thing about doing some amount of drive encryption is that there's no realistic chance that in the future anyone will be able to recover any of your data, whether you happen to care about it or not.

I'll also second Lady Fitzgerald's comment below about VeraCrypt, which is a successor fork of TrueCrypt. It's multi-platform, which is great if you need to access data on macOS or Windows.

Also, if you have to send the computer in for repair, you would have to provide the encryption key to the whomever is doing the repair.

I would never, ever under any circumstances provide anyone with anything having to do with an encryption key that was mine. I'd just as soon lose all the data as risk any of it falling into someone else's hands. That would even include a drive containing just a single piece of mundane data, like a photo of a dandelion shot at random and having no meaning whatsoever.