Disk encryption is a special case of data at rest protection when the storage media is a sector-addressable device (e.g., a hard disk). This article presents cryptographic aspects of the problem. For discussion of different software packages and hardware devices devoted to this problem see disk encryption software and disk encryption hardware.
Disk encryption methods aim to provide three distinct properties:
The first property requires defining an adversary from whom the data is being kept confidential. The strongest adversaries studied in the field of disk encryption have these abilities:
Beware! The modern eye!
The seeking leach that lies!
It shuffles in your porch,
It’s in your TV smoking cigarettes
Behind your mummy’s back at night…
Reveries are what I long for,
Fantasies are what I live for;
Where have I been all my life?
We live in an evil world
Where others ache and die;
Inhuman sacrifice
To feed the West and Western-eyesed
With bloody money
Falling from the sky!
Reveries are what I long for,
Fantasies are what I live for;
Where have I been all my life?
Reveries are gonna save us,
Fantasies complete and change us;
Where have I been all this time?
Beware! The modern eye!
The seeking leach that lies!
Beware! The modern lie!
Deceiving all it eyes!
Beware! The modern times!
Cause all they bring are lies!
Beware! The modern eye!
Reveries are what I long for,
Fantasies are what I live for;
Where have I been all my life?
Reveries are gonna save us,
Reveries complete and change us;