Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: Eric Brody on March 27, 2018, 05:47:38 pm

Title: Do you encrypt your laptop ( eg Filevault) or not?
Post by: Eric Brody on March 27, 2018, 05:47:38 pm

The New York Times just published an article in their tech section recommending that laptops be encrypted because should they be stolen, data will be safe(r). It has the usual caveats about loss of the password/key. Filevault is the technique for Macs, the article mentions other programs for PC's. I am a Mac person.

I am reasonably careful about passwords; my laptop rarely leaves my home; I'm a retired bum, but I do take it when I travel locally and overseas a couple of times a year.

I'm curious about what the presumably technologically sophisticated readers of this forum do.

Thanks.

Title: Re: Do you encrypt your laptop ( eg Filevault) or not?
Post by: David S on March 27, 2018, 06:05:23 pm

Retired as well but still keep everything encrypted from when I had a lot of very confidential data on the machine. No evidence that Filevault slows my machine down.

Title: Re: Do you encrypt your laptop ( eg Filevault) or not?
Post by: MattBurt on March 27, 2018, 06:08:11 pm

I don't but I also don't have much (any?) personal stuff on my laptop.
I do have that stuff on my desktop but I do not encrypt there either.

If you run Windows and your drive is formatted NTFS, you can encrypt just the folder containing your sensitive data. When you do this only someone with your credentials can read the files, even if they pull the drive out and pull the data off from another system.

If you forget your password you also lose access to the data.

Title: Re: Do you encrypt your laptop ( eg Filevault) or not?
Post by: digitaldog on March 27, 2018, 06:40:00 pm

I don't either and the sensitive stuff like back account and Passwords (in 1Password) is password protective. Also, have Back to My Mac on and believe I could remotely handle an issue should it be stolen. 

Title: Re: Do you encrypt your laptop ( eg Filevault) or not?
Post by: Farmer on March 27, 2018, 07:39:16 pm

Nothing sensitive on my personal laptop, so no, but work ones yes.  Encryption has zero impact on general performance but a problem can turn into a brick.  Backups (not encrypted) are even more essential.

Title: Re: Do you encrypt your laptop ( eg Filevault) or not?
Post by: francois on March 28, 2018, 03:50:18 am

Yes, I do encrypt my laptop. When I'm travelling abroad, I tend to erase the HD and keep just the bare minimum on it.

Title: Re: Do you encrypt your laptop ( eg Filevault) or not?
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on March 28, 2018, 04:34:25 am

Yes. It has a lot of work from my day job on it. The Information Commissioner can (and does) levy hefty fines on anyone found to be in breach of data protection legislation here. If my (unencrypted) laptop were stolen or lost, I'd potentially be liable for fines running into millions of pounds.

Jeremy