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I've generally seen full disk encryption on a OS volume as a moot point. Why is there a need to have full disk encryption on a bootable volume, when the only th

by sp4rki 16y ago

I've generally seen full disk encryption on a OS volume as a moot point. Why is there a need to have full disk encryption on a bootable volume, when the only thing you should be protecting from prying eyes is your content? Full disk encryption makes sense in a data volume, not in a bootable volume where just having a ~ directory and it's children encrypted covers mostly everyone's need for security.

jrockway 16y ago
So you know for a fact that every application you ever use doesn't write data outside of ~? You may feel comfortable about that, but I don't. /tmp, for example, can contain plenty of sensitive data.
- sp4rki 16y ago
  It doesn't if I don't give it permission to, but if you're concerned about it encrypt /tmp also or symlink it to ~/tmp (provided you're the only user). Nevertheless, I do understand that you have different requirements, but in the case someone really values the option of having his entire boot volume encrypted, the one time only price tag of PGP is a moot point and shouldn't be a deterrent. In fact, I'm now tempted to buy PGP's whole disk encryption thank you very much. In any case, I think it's generally overkill, but if you really needed, who am I to stand in your way! :) http://www.pgp.com/products/wholediskencryption/index.html http://www.pgp.com/products/wholediskencryption/index.html
  - jrockway 16y ago
    I use Linux, so full-disk encryption was just a checkbox (erm, line that you select?) in the installer. Like I said, it's free, so why not?
    - sp4rki 16y ago
      Oh silly me, I kind of assumed you where using OSX because someone made the comment that there's no option for full disk encryption. My bad. If I had an option to encrypt my whole disk that easily in OSX I'd take in a heart beat, not necessarily because I think it's better but because it's a solution and it's simple... because I can so to speak.

by sp4rki 16y ago

jrockway 16y ago

So you know for a fact that every application you ever use doesn't write data outside of ~? You may feel comfortable about that, but I don't. /tmp, for example, can contain plenty of sensitive data.

sp4rki 16y ago
It doesn't if I don't give it permission to, but if you're concerned about it encrypt /tmp also or symlink it to ~/tmp (provided you're the only user). Nevertheless, I do understand that you have different requirements, but in the case someone really values the option of having his entire boot volume encrypted, the one time only price tag of PGP is a moot point and shouldn't be a deterrent. In fact, I'm now tempted to buy PGP's whole disk encryption thank you very much. In any case, I think it's generally overkill, but if you really needed, who am I to stand in your way! :) http://www.pgp.com/products/wholediskencryption/index.html http://www.pgp.com/products/wholediskencryption/index.html
- jrockway 16y ago
  I use Linux, so full-disk encryption was just a checkbox (erm, line that you select?) in the installer. Like I said, it's free, so why not?
  - sp4rki 16y ago
    Oh silly me, I kind of assumed you where using OSX because someone made the comment that there's no option for full disk encryption. My bad. If I had an option to encrypt my whole disk that easily in OSX I'd take in a heart beat, not necessarily because I think it's better but because it's a solution and it's simple... because I can so to speak.