How do you encrypt your personal computers and/or hard drives?

Question

Hi, I'm not a techie and I want to encrypt my stuff. I searched for old threads and found old threads [1] (2016) and [2] (2010). This is what I compressed:- MacOS: FileVault2- Linux (which I don't have): luks/ dm-crypt- Windows: Bitlocker- Hard drives: VeraCrypt (TrueCrypt back then)Is this fine these days? Are there other, better (and user-friendly) options?Protecting myself against three letters or anything is not the requirement here. I want my diary, notes, pictures, etc. safe from people (not institutions).[1] Ask HN: How do you encrypt your laptops? (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11761491)[2] Ask HN: Do you encrypt your laptop's hard disk? (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1683255)

parmezan · Accepted Answer

Practically all famous Linux distro's offer built in encryption when setting up a new system using luks/dm-crypt. But you don't have to worry about it.
To encrypt a Windows 10 system u can use Veracrypt to boot the whole OS or just a container.
For Windows (Enterprise) you can also use BitLocker by Microsoft although the source code isn't trusted and I believe you have have a more expensive license in order to use it.
Yes you should encrypt your laptop. It's worth it in case you lose a laptop or it gets stolen nobody can read the data.

runjake · Answer

One additional note about VeraCrypt is that it's not just for encrypting hard drives. You can also create encrypted file-based volumes that mount to your OS like an external drive.It's an easy and unobtrusive way to get started with encrypting your files, and it's cross-platform to all the OSes VeraCrypt supports (macOS/Windows/Linux/etc).

NKosmatos · Answer

One extra vote for Veracrypt (https://www.veracrypt.fr). It's safe, has passed security audit, gets updated frequently, multi platform support with downloads for all OSes and it's free. Although it supports whole disk encryption, it's more suited for a virtual encrypted disk within a file.