Disk encryption is a special case of data at rest protection when the storage media is a sector-addressable device (e.g., a hard disk).

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SSD (Flash Memory) security when data is encrypted in place

I'm surveying current techniques on flash memory security. I've learned that the non-in-place update of flash memories prevent us from adapting the same encryption techniques that we used on hard ...
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5answers
706 views

Is there any way to write-protect a USB or hide its contents from deletion without hardware modifications?

Data on external storage devices are not secure, I understand that. Despite hardware modifications they can still be hacked etc. However files can be hidden (steganography) or encrypted. I'm ...
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2answers
462 views

How to encrypt data on the server?

I have some data on the server (running Linux) which needs to be encrypted (company policy). This data is being served by an application running on this machine. Now I consider a few possibilities: ...
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1answer
102 views

Recognizing PGP-encrypted disks

I am studying various disk encryption schemes (such as PGP, MS Bit Locker, BestCrypt and TrueCrypt) on my Windows OS. I am interested to know how an encrypted partition/disk/file with a particular ...
5
votes
2answers
119 views

Full-disk encryption and theft mitigation?

Is it possible to combine the security of full-disk encryption (e.g. Truecrypt) with the honeypot-like performance of anti-theft tools (e.g. Prey)? In other words, is it feasible to have both strong ...
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6answers
2k views

How secure is FileVault 2 while the computer is in sleep mode?

How secure is Apples disk encryption FileVault 2 when someone has physical or network access while the computer in sleep mode or is running a screen saver? Are there ways to circumvent FileVault 2 ...
3
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1answer
196 views

Remote System Administration of an Encryption-Switch-Encrypted Infrastructure

I can't seem to find a decent explanation anywhere of the practicalities of remote system administration (e.g. SSH) of an encryption-switch-encrypted SAN-stored infrastructure. The environment will ...
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1answer
100 views

Is there a way to encrypt an existing ext4 filesystem with already data on it? [duplicate]

I have a big drive with already data on it, that I would like to encrypt (ext4). Is there a way to encrypt that disk without having to move the data to another drive first? Or maybe, this would be ...
4
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1answer
135 views

Accessing hidden partitons

I have two disks. They're both bootable and run Linux. When I physically mount the disks, I can see scsi devices get added. /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc. However the partitions are not detected. I can't see ...
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3answers
151 views

Should a full disk encrypted hard drive on a live system be considered encryption at rest?

If you are specifying requirements that a certain classification of data be encrypted while at rest (on storage), should the requirement be considered met if the data is stored on an live (turned on) ...
2
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2answers
141 views

Is it safe to suspend my computer if I'm using encrypted hard drive?

I'm using disk encryption to protect my data and sensitive information - but only one partition. I used to suspend my computer instead of shutting it down because of very fast resume and very low ...
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1answer
127 views

Dual Linux System with Whole Disk Encryption

(This is a continuation of my question on Ask Ubuntu.) My goal is I want to have a Xubuntu/Ubuntu dual boot, with a catch - I want the disk to be fully encrypted with the dm-crypt (native supplied) ...
2
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1answer
171 views

Is Dual Factor possible during boot with whole disk encryption on Mac FileVault 2

Mac FileVault 2 is the default disk encryption for newer Macs that occurs in the EFI pre-boot phase. The challenge here is that most smartcard drivers are loaded after the OS loads. Is anyone aware ...
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0answers
58 views

Which is efficient disk or volume encryption system? [closed]

Referring to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Disk_Encryption#Comparison_table to compare different disk encryption solution available in market. Our requirement is to encrypt the EBS ...
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1answer
245 views

SSD enrcyption with ATA password - AHCI mode?

I have seen articles advising that in order to make the most of an SSD, it should be connected in AHCI mode. Some SSDs allow the ATA password to encrypt the encryption key so my question is this - ...
3
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2answers
137 views

Remedy for not having filled the disk with random data?

Filling a large HDD with /dev/urandom prior to encryption can be extremely slow (even with netcat, multiple instances in parallel, etc) and for this reason I'm sure a lot of users skip this advice ...
3
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1answer
99 views

Is this a security risk for us to lost TPM or others to access to reset BIOS ?

In the previous post Physically secure the system case it is recommended to physically protect the system. But in case stolen laptops where intruder have physical access to TPMs. What are the security ...
6
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2answers
488 views

SSD Encryption - Difference between models

I understand that most SSDs which support encryption usually encrypt all data, but that only some actually encrypt the encryption key with a user BIOS password. This means that the models which don't ...
3
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1answer
264 views

Full Disk Encryption within a VM, how secure is it?

Just a quick query on basically how to secure a VM for a home computer for a number of uses (such as securing work related data in a good enough fashion whilst in its native environment). I'm not ...
3
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3answers
729 views

Securing my USB flash drive with Truecrypt and FreeOTFE

I want to know if I encrypt my flash with Truecrypt "Encrypt a non-system partition/drive" option and then mount it and then make a container with FreeOTFE on the Truecrypt encrypted drive and then ...
0
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1answer
168 views

Another method to erase hard drives securely? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Use truecrypt to make data unrecoverable The other day I was thinking, and I looked up this question because I was pretty sure a question similar to this had been asked. ...
0
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0answers
125 views

TrueCrypt Windows FDE Multi-Boot [closed]

I tried to achieve Matt's setup in my VM with Ubuntu and Debian (both having their separate /boot partition). Everything worked smoothly, but enabling TrueCrypt-FDE on Windows, I could still access ...
2
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2answers
203 views

Possible implementations of networked+encrypted filesystem

Is it possible to implement scheme where remote server just share its filesystem (or resizable container file in it) and it's locally encrypted and mounted? And what is best practical method? (On ...
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1answer
88 views

Determing and deciphering an encrypted drive (knowing the password)

I have a Western Digital external drive (my passport essential 500GB), which comes with a little software that allows you to encrypt your data (which I did sometime ago). Unfortunately, this software ...
4
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2answers
1k views

What does HP DriveLock do to your password?

While looking at various hard drive encryption methods, I discovered that HP's "DriveLock" is not quite the standard ATA security system. While I did get confirmation from HP that it does indeed use ...
8
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5answers
458 views

Encrypt Virtual Machine in the cloud

I am no expert when it comes to security in virtualized environments. However a problem I always saw is: What happens if the host OS gets hacked and an attacker gains administrative privileges? How ...
6
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4answers
2k views

How effective is iPhone 3GS and 4 encryption?

My primary goal is to protect Activesync-based communication from being copied or stolen from an offline device. In that context how effective is iPhone 3GS and 4 encryption?
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5answers
348 views

Encrypting a disk that has stuff on it?

Ok, so a pretty big disk ~1-2TB (90% full, multiple partitions + 2 operating systems on it), needs to be encrypted and zeroed-out, and it's a bit too much data for backing it all up before encryption. ...
4
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1answer
327 views

Can a Bitlocker To Go user pin be brute forced?

I have a external hard disk and protected a partition on it with Bitlocker To Go. I printed the recovery code but I lost it. I can't remember the user PIN either. If I could only know the first ...
18
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6answers
890 views

What are the good use cases for disk encryption?

I've been researching disk/file system encryption, and on the surface it seems like a good idea for a lot of things. But as I dig further, the security it offers seems more mirage like than real. ...
4
votes
2answers
625 views

Have anyone tried to extract the encryption key from a SSD?

After reading this forum thread it does not sound like encrypted SSDs provide much protection at all - specifically encryption only occurs between the controller chipset and the NAND storage. Why is ...
3
votes
1answer
232 views

Does setting a firmware password add security if FileVault 2 is enabled?

On an up-to-date OS X computer with FileVault 2 (whole-disk encryption, minus the recovery partition), is any security gained by setting a firmware password, as well?
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7answers
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Are there actually any advantages to Android full-disk encryption?

So, since Android 3, devices can perform boot-time, on-the-fly encryption/decryption of the application storage area (NOT the SDcard/removable storage) - essentially full-disk encryption. This ...
7
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2answers
1k views

For LUKS: The most preferable and safest cipher?

I'm about to encrypt two of my hard drives using LUKS, since I can't really do it myself I use the guide on the Arch Linux wiki (which can be found here). In an example in the guide the cipher ...
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1answer
177 views

Is using decrypt_derived more secure than a keyfile?

Say I have two partitions on a Linux system, a root partition (/) and a /home partition. Both of them are encrypted with LUKS. The /home partition needs only to be decrypted if / is unlocked and ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views

TrueCrypt -vs- MacOS encrypted sparse image - equally secure? Other alternatives?

I'm currently trying to find my personal best solution for storing passwords and other sensible data. Recently I've used 1Password on iPhone and Mac but I'm not really satisfied with its predefined ...
4
votes
2answers
245 views

Detect changes in /boot when using full disk encryption

When running a fully encrypted linux system using dm-crypt, the /boot partition has to be unencrypted to boot, as far as I know. I've setup a server that can be unlocked remotely by connecting to a ...
2
votes
1answer
166 views

How does disk encryption mounting work with large disk and low RAM?

For example with Truecrypt or bitlocker, when my hard disk contains 500 GB encrypted data and 256 MB Free RAM, how is the data decrypted/disk mounted when I turn on my computer? If the entire disk is ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views

How expensive is it to guess a 15 character password, and should I be worried?

I'm currently using AES encryption (at home) on GNU/Linux (one of LUKS AES-256 variants with xts) and on Windows 7 (Truecrypt) with a 15 characters password (alphanumeric lowercase only plus _). ...
3
votes
1answer
397 views

Reasonable (BruteForce) Attempts/Second Estimate?

I've read various articles on password strength and passwords vs pass phrases (including the one from XKCD and its thread here), but most of those articles seem to be focused on online passwords, and ...
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5answers
5k views

How secure is NTFS encryption?

How secure is the data in a encrypted NTFS folder on Windows (XP, 7)? (The encryption option under file|folder -> properties -> advanced -> encrypt.) If the user uses a decent password, can this ...
11
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2answers
5k views

Multi-boot with full hard drive encryption and pre-boot authentication

How would I set up a multiboot system which supports full hard drive encryption and pre-boot authentication. I have a system with Ubuntu, Windows 7, Windows XP, and I would like to install Red Hat. ...
6
votes
7answers
2k views

Physical computer security, how to disable USB ports when the computer is 'locked'?

Lets say my PC & server is in an environment where a theoretical attacker has physical access to the machine while I'm not there. Now the data is encrypted on the hard drive with TrueCrypt. ...
5
votes
4answers
293 views

How do you guarantee that you don't lose a keyfile?

I am toying with the idea of adding keyfiles to various things I encrypt. However whats been keeping me from adopting them is garanteeing that I don't loose the keyfile while still keeping security. ...
3
votes
3answers
589 views

Are there any hardware encryption solutions for my notebook?

I have a HP 6510b notebook. Are there any solutions for hardware encryption? I mean I don't want to use software encryption like LUKS, but I don't want that that if my notebook gets stolen the ...
16
votes
3answers
1k views

Are passwords in memory?

I have an encrypted HDD (dm_crypt). That's why I store my passwords in a simple text file. I usually copy/paste the passwords from it. Ok! Q: If I open this text file then it goes into the memory. So ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views

Full disk encryption and multi-factor authentication

All serious full disk encryption schemes I have looked into use a static password for authentication. For example, TrueCrypt supports two-factor authentication with keyfiles, but not for system ...
0
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2answers
237 views

In TrueCrypt Hidden / Normal overriding?

If I have a normal TrueCrypt volume, and I want to create a Hidden volume inside of it, how do I stop the 2 from overriding each other? Or do I just have to manually make sure the inner volume does ...
5
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2answers
269 views

Erasing a hard-disk, encrypting it as alternative?

I was pondering about this, sometimes people ask me to erase data on their drive. So I use a shredding program, which takes a long time. However what if instead of shredding all the files, I'd just ...
4
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2answers
240 views

Securing data on laptop's hdd

I was wondering which is the best way to secure/encrypt data in the hard disk on a laptop that runs Ubuntu Oneiric? Setting LVM encryption? I am mostly concerned about having my laptop lost or what ...

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