Encrypt Filesystems with EncFS and Loop-AES

Linux.com (Slashdot sister site) has a quick look a file encryption using EncFS and Loop-AES as examples before briefly examining other options. From the article: "you can find a number of options for filesystem encryption in Linux exist, depending on your needs. The most important thing when choosing which one to use is to be clear about your needs. Will the size of the files you need to encrypt grow or stay static? Do you need to encrypt certain files or entire partitions? What level of security do you need? Answers to these questions will help determine the most appropriate program to use."

Re:Using encryption suggests criminality

[cyber0ne]

What is so important that you Linux hippies feel the need to encrypt?

I may be a Linux user, but if anyone thinks I'm a "hippie" then they really need to re-define the term.

Do you have something to hide?

Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it's none of your business or anybody else's.

It's kiddy porn, isn't it? Be honest!

<sarcasm>You know, if kiddie porn is such a problem on the internet, how come I can never find any?</sarcasm>

I for one am glad that Microsoft doesn't help out the terrorists and pedophiles in their illegal activity.

So am I. We don't want their kind of "help."

Their encrypting filesystem includes numerous backdoors to assist law enforcement.

Case in point.

I just wish the OSS community would do the same.

Simple enough. Write your own. Make it as terrible as you want. Post the source on Sourceforge. Then the "OSS community" will have done the same. It won't be very popular, but it'll be there.

In all seriousness, it's not about hiding criminal activity. Honestly, the current state of US politics (that is, after all, where I live) kind of scares me. I may not be engaging in illegal activity now, but how many of my current activities will be considered illegal in the future? The last thing I need is for some "law enforcement" entity to go grepping my emails and IM logs looking for something to pin on me.

I have nothing to hide. I also have nothing to share. Nothing to see here, please move along.

Compatible with MacOS X FileVault?

[tji]

MacOS includes this functionality, in what sounds like a very similar manner. It can create a disk file, which is AES encrypted, and you can mount like any other disk. They also have the option of encrypting your whole home directory, but I've heard of people having problems with that..

Which, if any, encrypted Linux filesystems are compatible with MacOS's filevault?

Re:Dynamically sized encrypted filesystem

[niskel]

Did you RTFA? (this is Slashdot, stupid question) This is what the whole purpose of EncFS is, you don't need to pre-allocate a set amount of disk space.