Comprehensive Encryption of the Operating System and Hard Drive

Comprehensive Encryption of the Operating System and Hard Drive

Cryptography is the ultimate expression of non-violent direct action. A state possessing nuclear weapons can subject millions of people to unlimited coercion, yet even in this case, it will be unable to break the will of individuals who wish to conceal their secrets from it and use strong cryptography. Strong cryptography can withstand any violence.

— Julian Assange

I would like to start this paragraph with a small clarification to clarify the terminology. We titled this chapter "Encryption of the Operating System or Hard Drive" because sometimes these meanings can differ. Encrypting the operating system does not always mean fully encrypting the hard drive, as there may be several operating systems on the hard drive. And there can also be several hard drives...

But I do not want to confuse you, and therefore for most users, encrypting the hard drive is equivalent to encrypting the system and vice versa. In English, there is a special term for this: full disk encryption (FDE), which translates to Russian as полнодисковое шифрование.

This course is read by users with varying levels of knowledge, and I would like to explain how hard drive encryption with the operating system works using a simple and understandable example.

Without encryption, your hard drive resembles a box of data from which anyone can extract information by gaining physical access. Unlike a box, however, deleted or previously stored files can still be found on the disk. It is no coincidence that law enforcement agencies extract and seal hard drives when arresting suspects, then sending them to a laboratory where specialists retrieve the stored information.

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Comprehensive encryption cannot prevent access to the box; however, instead of documents, there will be a chaotic collection of small pieces of paper from which it will be impossible to assemble anything informative, even in a laboratory.