"Part two of Kurt Seifried's three part series on Linux encryption details the products and issues surrounding filesystem encryption."
"As mentioned in my previous column, a data security solution
isn?t complete without data encryption. If (when) an attacker manages to circumvent file
permissions, or simply gets ahold of some backup tapes (you do keep them locked up?) he
can now easily access your data. Adding encryption to the equation will provide another
layer of security, one that will slow down all attackers and usually stop most. Current
encryption is not unbreakable, but it will protect the data for a period of time (depending on
key size and the strength of the algorithm this can be a very long time)."
"There are several ways for a user to keep their files encrypted. The simplest is to have them simply store files as they normally would and use
tools, such as PGP, to encrypt and decrypt them as needed. The next step up from this involves programs that make use of the local loopback
facility in Linux..."
