thoughts on ecryption for iron keys

[Rikqkard]

I got a couple of iron key drives recently form some unclassified work that I get to reset and wanted to know what people think of them in general. I am currently just using one to store some nsfw pics from a FWB/ex (with consent of course) and was also wondering what other silly things people liked to encrypt for funsies

 

[Eriktf]

i encrypt everything with veracrypt and luks

 

[Carrot]

Never heard of them, but I guess that is their purpose, to secure data?

How does the encryption work, where is the key stored, is it a text password?

 

[avoid]

was also wondering what other silly things people liked to encrypt for funsies

Good on you to protect sensitive data such as others' pictures. I always hope that people do this if I send them something.

I have a couple of external storage devices (ESD) all of which are encrypted using VeraCrypt. Sadly one of them got corrupted about a month ago, causing me to lose over 3 TB of files. I hope I'll be able to restore the data at some point, but it seems to be a hardware issue. Anyway, that ESD stored games, movies, music, manga, software, 2FA backup keys, and several encrypted file containers with loads of private nsfw pictures of other people, and of me. I can rebuild anything entertainment related over time, but not the pictures. :c

The other ESD's house backups of all my devices. But sometimes I think, what's the point of keeping everything when I don't really need those back-ups. The history they hold is lost on me. I changed too much and feel mostly sad when I look at old pictures, and browse old documents.

 

[StoneCellaiver]

Never heard of them, but I guess that is their purpose, to secure data?

How does the encryption work, where is the key stored, is it a text password?

VeraCrypt is for Windows and LUKS for Linux
VeraCrypt is a bit clunkier from my experience, but LUKS works like a charm
You can encrypt your drives with a password, basically, and it's useful for securing data since nobody can get through, so you wouldn't have to worry about anybody finding out after CTB for example(VeraCrypt has an ancient algorithm where they can scramble your data with you moving your mouse around)

 

[Dejected 55]

Anything that is encrypted can be decrypted. The nefarious folks are almost always ahead of the protection curve. Also, our own government (wherever you are located in the world) is actively trying to break everyone else's encryption as they scream loudly about protecting their own data. Se la vie.

Assume anything you ever send or receive can and probably has been seen by others already. You'll sleep easier.

 

[Eriktf]

Good on you to protect sensitive data such as others' pictures. I always hope that people do this if I send them something.

I have a couple of external storage devices (ESD) all of which are encrypted using VeraCrypt. Sadly one of them got corrupted about a month ago, causing me to lose over 3 TB of files. I hope I'll be able to restore the data at some point, but it seems to be a hardware issue. Anyway, that ESD stored games, movies, music, manga, software, 2FA backup keys, and several encrypted file containers with loads of private nsfw pictures of other people, and of me. I can rebuild anything entertainment related over time, but not the pictures. :c

The other ESD's house backups of all my devices. But sometimes I think, what's the point of keeping everything when I don't really need those back-ups. The history they hold is lost on me. I changed too much and feel mostly sad when I look at old pictures, and browse old documents.

thats why we use backups..

VeraCrypt is for Windows and LUKS for Linux
VeraCrypt is a bit clunkier from my experience, but LUKS works like a charm
You can encrypt your drives with a password, basically, and it's useful for securing data since nobody can get through, so you wouldn't have to worry about anybody finding out after CTB for example(VeraCrypt has an ancient algorithm where they can scramble your data with you moving your mouse around)

veracrypt containers works great on Linux

Anything that is encrypted can be decrypted. The nefarious folks are almost always ahead of the protection curve. Also, our own government (wherever you are located in the world) is actively trying to break everyone else's encryption as they scream loudly about protecting their own data. Se la vie.

Assume anything you ever send or receive can and probably has been seen by others already. You'll sleep easier.

encryption wont work forever but since we dont hear anything about cops decrypt fils and use as evidence then its pretty safe to say they cant

 

[Dejected 55]

encryption wont work forever but since we dont hear anything about cops decrypt fils and use as evidence then its pretty safe to say they cant

Police do sometimes. In the USA it is more difficult thanks to the 5th amendment to the US Constitution protecting you against self-incrimination, which certainly forcing you to decrypt your data/evidence would do... but there are ways around it, and they can of course try to decrypt it. The US government has also been trying to enforce "back door" legislations into devices that would allow them to decrypt things like smartphones without the user's interaction for just this kind of situation.

Law enforcement does tend to lag in technology compared to criminals because of budgets and of course the incentive of a criminal to be ahead of the game. It's kind of like how in sports the defense necessarily lags behind the offense because the defense has to see what happens and react to it OR guess correctly.

So saying cops "can't" because you haven't heard about it lately really isn't something I would rely upon. One is that if they do, you can bet they try and keep that secret as long as they can. Anytime any major encryption is broken, traditionally, you try and keep that secret so the people you are spying on will hopefully keep using encryption you've already cracked. Every time you admit to breaking an encryption, they immediately switch to something new.

So... it's tough, but not impossible. And this is not counting all the stuff like... maybe Bob keeps his data encrypted and you keep yours encrypted but you send him files over unencrypted Internet transmission and those can be intercepted. And from there not only do they already have some unencrypted data but they have encrypted versions of your data to compare to something they already know must be in there, and that helps tremendously towards decrypting the rest.

 

[Eriktf]

Police do sometimes. In the USA it is more difficult thanks to the 5th amendment to the US Constitution protecting you against self-incrimination, which certainly forcing you to decrypt your data/evidence would do... but there are ways around it, and they can of course try to decrypt it. The US government has also been trying to enforce "back door" legislations into devices that would allow them to decrypt things like smartphones without the user's interaction for just this kind of situation.

Law enforcement does tend to lag in technology compared to criminals because of budgets and of course the incentive of a criminal to be ahead of the game. It's kind of like how in sports the defense necessarily lags behind the offense because the defense has to see what happens and react to it OR guess correctly.

So saying cops "can't" because you haven't heard about it lately really isn't something I would rely upon. One is that if they do, you can bet they try and keep that secret as long as they can. Anytime any major encryption is broken, traditionally, you try and keep that secret so the people you are spying on will hopefully keep using encryption you've already cracked. Every time you admit to breaking an encryption, they immediately switch to something new.

So... it's tough, but not impossible. And this is not counting all the stuff like... maybe Bob keeps his data encrypted and you keep yours encrypted but you send him files over unencrypted Internet transmission and those can be intercepted. And from there not only do they already have some unencrypted data but they have encrypted versions of your data to compare to something they already know must be in there, and that helps tremendously towards decrypting the rest.

smartphone are not safe i would not trust Google, Apple, Microsoft or big-tech in general with imported data.
LE cant use a file that was encrypted as evidence if they want to keep it secret that they can crack it.
hidden volume are easy to make so 5th amendment dose not matter.