Mastering Linux Security and Hardening

Encrypting partitions with Linux Unified Key Setup – LUKS

Being able to encrypt individual files can be handy, but it can be quite unwieldy for a large number of files. For that, we need something better, and we have three different methods:

• Block encryption: We can use this for either whole-disk encryption, or to encrypt individual partitions
• File-level encryption: We'd use this to encrypt individual directories, without having to encrypt the underlying partitions
• Containerized Encryption: Using third-party software that doesn't come with any Linux distribution, we can create encrypted, cross-platform containers that can be opened on either Linux, Mac, or Windows machines

The Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS), falls into the first category. ...