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PhracturedBlue asks: "There are lots of ways to encrypt a filesystem (via loopback, ppdd, CFS or CryptFS), but all of these options appear to have their faults, be it poor performance, lack of features, or not being actively maintained. So are there any other options out there, that provie quality FS encryption with reasonable performance? So, are there any other viable options, besides the ones I've found? Are there any actual benchmarks of actual performance for the viable options above (I guess the viable ones are loopback, CFS, TCFS, and PPDD)? How about systems using the AES-winner Rijndael (I know Loopback Encryption and possibly TCFS and PPDD can use Twofish, but isn't Rijndeal supposed to be one of the faster encryption methods?). I've seen the recent Slashdot article, and it didn't really address the above questions."

"First let me say that I know little to nothing about cryptography, and I wouldn't know the first thing about good vs. bad options, so any statements I make here are based on what I've read and may be completely erroneous. What I'm looking for a way to secure my (Debian) Linux laptop, since physical security is an issue (I can't keep it locked up in my house all the time). So I went out looking for a way of encrypting my filesystem.

The easiest method appears to be to install Loopback Encryption, but from what I can figure out this is a bad solution because (a) its very poor performance, and (b) there is no way to do key authentication. Another option is CFS (a quick howto can be found here), but this is also reported to have poor performance (even with blowfish, or the NFS related TCFS) and it also appears to be abandoned. (Okay TCFS may not be abandoned, but it hasn't been updated for over a year). People seem to rave about CryptFS, but this appears to be a prototype developed for a research paper that has gone no further. Of the last real options that I've uncovered PPDD (which is a device-driver rather than a filesystem) seems like it may be the most promising (though it doesn't seem to have been updated since January, and I can find no indication about testing it with the 2.4 beta kernels)."

Jacob Hopkins writes "Replay Associates have put the EFF's book 'Cracking DES: Secrets of Encryption Research, Wiretap Politics & Chip Design' online in both HTML and zip archive Fun for the whole family. "

Jacob Hopkins writes "Replay Associates have put the EFF's book 'Cracking DES: Secrets of Encryption Research, Wiretap Politics & Chip Design' online in both HTML and zip archive Fun for the whole family. "

Jacob Hopkins writes "Replay Associates have put the EFF's book 'Cracking DES: Secrets of Encryption Research, Wiretap Politics & Chip Design' online in both HTML and zip archive Fun for the whole family. "

Red Hat Software recently announced they will make their latest product, Red Hat Secure Web Server, available on May 21. The package will cost $99 and contains the Apache webserver (enchanced with RSA key technology), a search engine, log analysis software and the Netscape browser. Buyers also get a $25 discount for a certificate registration at Thawte Consulting. Unfortunately the software can only be sold in the United States and Cananda, due to export restrictions. People outside those countries can always take a peek at the replay site, where they will find all the crypto goodies they want.