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For example, if we take this software into account:

How can we trust suppliers of whole disk encryption software in the lights of the recent NSA events?
Are those providers really "secure" or do we miss something that should be obvious?

These are the only players with mac os x support, which is my main operation system.

2 Answers 2

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I guess it depends on what your threat model is, if the NSA are after you as a person of interest, full disk encryption is the least of your problems, you should probably just stick to a one time pad and abacus.

If you want to keep a potential thief from accessing your documents if your laptop should get stolen, any of the closed source full disk encryption packages will do.

If you're really worried about it, just double up, use full disk encryption from one of the vendors then encrypt the sensitive files with an open source tool as well, the more layers you add the harder it becomes to compromise.

Fyi, Mac has full disk encryption built in: system preferences > system & security > file vault. (Just don't backup the keys with apple)

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    Love the abacus, but you can perform acoustic analysis on the clacking and determine the calculations made :)
    – schroeder
    Oct 29, 2014 at 22:33
  • @schroeder hahahaha
    – Desthro
    Oct 29, 2014 at 22:37
  • In terms of agency, well nothing fancy but I think outside of the USA, governments are a real threat. I want to hide or better say protect my stuff from governments that are hostile to journalists. For example China, Turkey, Iran. Would WDE protect my stuff?
    – Herr
    Oct 30, 2014 at 6:15
  • It won't "protect" it, but it will keep the information contained on the disk from falling into their hands. (assuming your passphrase/key is strong enough to withstand scrutiny)
    – Desthro
    Oct 30, 2014 at 14:45
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There's no real answer to that question other than that you cannot completely trust anything you didn't put together yourself. It's unfortunate, but true. I am certain there are many other available open-source options for WDE, which may allay some of your fears in trusting a company. Then again, some open-source software has been compromised by aforementioned triple-letter agencies. Here is a List of WDE Software. Can you trust them? Maybe. Are there backdoors in it? Maybe. Arguably not, but you can never be certain. Just pretty close =)

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  • That's correct :) Any recommendation for osx WDE?
    – Herr
    Oct 30, 2014 at 6:16
  • Anything that does the job is likely to be fine =) Which reminds me... I need to get back to encrypting that Tails usb....
    – Desthro
    Oct 30, 2014 at 14:43

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