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Ask HN: How should I secure virtual machines on developer laptops?
I love having Ubuntu installed on a VMWare Fusion virtual machine on my Mac for development. It means I can code anywhere I take my laptop. I generally work off a data snapshot with any user details sanitized, but I worry about what would happen if my laptop were stolen. I understand that 99.99% of all laptop thefts would result in a quick formatting, but I'd love a solution that doesn't leave my codebase floating around.
My current line of thinking is an encrypted root partition on the virtual machine and then making sure that I shut down my virtual machine rather than simply suspending it.
Any other brilliant ideas?
- drKarl 16y agoPerhaps you could use a TrueCrypt encrypted volume, in an external disk (pendrive, USB disk), and mount the volume from within the Ubuntu Virtual Machine.
- jacquesm 16y agoI don't see why the fact that it is a VM is a factor here, you should secure the HD of the laptop anyway. A VM allows you to do that twice, so it's better rather than worse, or am I missing something here ? Have you considered sticking the sensitive data on a USB thumbdrive and removing that from the laptop when not in use ? That would be pretty cheap and very effective.
- wglb 16y agoConsider PGP Desktop and whole-disk encryption. You can still can lose your laptop, but you won't compromise your data. Also, power off (shut down) the laptop when transporting it.