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<blockquote data-quote="Stenographers" data-source="post: 1044367" data-attributes="member: 97396">It depends on what you consider sensitive and your threat model. If for example an adversary has the capability to confiscate your computer it might make sense not to have the whole thing encrypted. If you properly hide the encrypted files, using something like a hidden container through Veracrypt, having the non sensitive data unencrypted may give you some plausible deniability. However this adds to the complexity of the setup, which may result in you keeping some sensitive data unencrypted for convenience. Full disk encryption means everything is encrypted by default, which is easier to manage since you don’t have the additional overhead in the process of encrypting / unencrypting files. It is possible to lock yourself out of your data when it is encrypted. Either due to software bugs or personal incompetence. This is why backups are a must have if you’re going to encrypt your data. Preferably the backups would be encrypted themselves with a unique password. If you have an encrypted system, and you don’t have encrypted backups, then your backups represent a risk that basically nullifies the protection you get from encryption. So in short, it depends on who you’re protecting yourself against and what you’re storing. Everyone has sensitive information of some kind. I usually recommend to the average person to use full disk encryption either through Bitlocker or LUCKS.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Stenographers, post: 1044367, member: 97396"] It depends on what you consider sensitive and your threat model. If for example an adversary has the capability to confiscate your computer it might make sense not to have the whole thing encrypted. If you properly hide the encrypted files, using something like a hidden container through Veracrypt, having the non sensitive data unencrypted may give you some plausible deniability. However this adds to the complexity of the setup, which may result in you keeping some sensitive data unencrypted for convenience. Full disk encryption means everything is encrypted by default, which is easier to manage since you don’t have the additional overhead in the process of encrypting / unencrypting files. It is possible to lock yourself out of your data when it is encrypted. Either due to software bugs or personal incompetence. This is why backups are a must have if you’re going to encrypt your data. Preferably the backups would be encrypted themselves with a unique password. If you have an encrypted system, and you don’t have encrypted backups, then your backups represent a risk that basically nullifies the protection you get from encryption. So in short, it depends on who you’re protecting yourself against and what you’re storing. Everyone has sensitive information of some kind. I usually recommend to the average person to use full disk encryption either through Bitlocker or LUCKS. [/QUOTE]

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