Encryption (Encrypting) or encryption is a technique by which we can hide information from other people. For this, algorithms are used that are responsible for changing the original information for random data so that anyone who tries to access this data cannot read or understand them.
Encryption normally has two ways which would be:
▸Convert the original information into encrypted data
Keys (or encryption passwords) are used for this. These can be public, in the case of asymmetric encryption, or private, in the case of symmetric encryption. Both techniques are similar, although some steps in the encryption or decryption process change.
▸Make it decrypted
For this, whoever wants to read the information will need the same key that has been used to encrypt the data in order to decrypt it and obtain the original information again.
Within the concept of disk encryption, it is good that we make a differentiation between full disk encryption and partial encryption of the content of the disk or of individual files and then we will see what advantages and disadvantages doing this can give us.
What advantages and disadvantages does encrypting our hard drive give us
▸Disadvantages of full disk encryption:
If we lose the encryption key (and we don’t have it protected), we risk the loss of all our information.
There is some loss of performance of the equipment: if we encrypt the entire disk, including the swap files, the operating system may lose certain optimizations.
Depending on how we encrypt the entire disk, there are risks that our keys could be intercepted with techniques such as boot-hijacking.
▸Advantages of full disk encryption:
We should not worry about the encryption of specific files; the entire disk drive will be fully encrypted.
We can encrypt at startup: no one can access the content of our hard drive without the encryption key.
Check also:
How can we save space on our computer?
Why there are Corrupted files on your PC?
