Yeah... a lot of articles like this seem to equate poor security practices like "using an encrypted disk with a non-encrypted root" with major issues in the OS.

Yeah... a lot of articles like this seem to equate poor security practices like "using an encrypted disk with a non-encrypted root" with major issues in the OS. I do agree that it's an issue that thumbnails stored should be wiped by default when the drive is disconnected unless the root is encrypted also but you're already open to compromise the second you access an encrypted disk from a system where the root isn't also encrypted. Having read access to an encrypted disk in any situation where you're not certain there's a secure chain is, by definition, insecure.