[BBLISA] whole disk encryption

[Daniel Feenberg]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2010, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:

>> From: bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org [mailto:bblisa-bounces at bblisa.org] On
>> Behalf Of Edward Ned Harvey
>>
>> I wonder if there's a hardware solution, that would make the encrypted
>> disk
>> transparent to the OS, and hence, all the backup tools and other tools
>> you
>> might use in the OS would remain functional...
>
> Apparently ...
>
> way, whatever the reason this didn't take off before, I really enjoy
> BitLocker, and am happy I found it.  I'm the only person who knows anything
>
...
>
> The disadvantage of the HD pass is:  You have to constantly enter the HD
> pass.  Every time you power-on, or wake up.  The drive is not encrypted;

I don't understand. If you don't have to enter a password for bitlocker, 
when is the data unavailable? I thought the idea of encryption was that 
the encrypted data would be unavailable to a thief who stole the computer 
while it was turned off. If you don't have to enter a password, then how 
does the computer know not to decrypt data?

Also, I am not clear about backups - I assume that you can export the 
decrypted drive - is that right?

Daniel Feenberg