Burning CDs and DVDS with an encrypted filesystem
BATTENING DOWN THE DISKS
An encrypted hard disk on your server is no help if valuable data on CDs or DVDs falls into the hands of spies. We’ll show you some convenient solutions for encrypting data on removable media.
You may already store sensitive data in an encrypted area of your hard disk – and if you haven’t so far, you might start after reading this issue of Linux Magazine. If you use your data on the road, you might store a snapshot on a CD or copy your files to a USB stick. But you should be concerned about the risk of carrying around copies of your data. USB sticks are used just like external hard disks, so protecting a USB stick with encryption is easy. Encrypting CDs and DVDs is more difficult, but you do have some options. This article explores a pair of useful techniques for putting encrypted data on a CD or DVD. Options The simplest way to put encrypted data on a CD is to use GPG or a similar tool to individually encrypt the files and then store the results on the CD. This approach is fine for many applications, and it provides adequate security, but the risks become apparent on closer inspection. A user might manually decrypt the file and temporarily store the cleartext on a writable medium.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.