I was recently intrigued to learn that only half of the respondents to a survey said that they used disk encryption. Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows have been increasingly using encryption by default. On the other hand, while most Linux installers I’ve encountered include the option to encrypt, it is not selected by default.

Whether it’s a test bench, beater laptop, NAS, or daily driver, I encrypt for peace of mind. Whatever I end up doing on my machines, I can be pretty confident my data won’t end up in the wrong hands if the drive is stolen or lost and can be erased by simply overwriting the LUKS header. Recovering from an unbootable state or copying files out from an encrypted boot drive only takes a couple more commands compared to an unencrypted setup.

But that’s just me and I’m curious to hear what other reasons to encrypt or not to encrypt are out there.

  • naeap
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    19 hours ago

    Yeah, on my laptop - because I travel with it and confidential data (like from my customers) could land in hands its not supposed to

    No, in case of my desktop, because it’s easier to access it in case of failure

    • hallettj@leminal.space
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      1 day ago

      My thinking is similar. I’ve seen this news story more than once:

      laptop stolen containing customer data… hard drive was not encrypted

      I don’t generally have customer data, but it can happen every once in a while.