Disk Encryption HOWTO
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# Glossary

AES

  Advanced Encryption Standard, a strong, well-regarded encryption algorithm chosen by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology

asset

  the data being protected by encryption—either a disk, partition, or a file

encryption

  a mathematical means of scrambling data so that it's unintelligible unless decrypted using a specific key

key

  the small piece of data necessary to make encrypted data intelligible

keychain

  the physical medium (such as a USB flash drive) used to hold the encryption key (and possibly the beginning of the boot process)

loopback device

  a Linux block device which appears to store data (by using another device)

loop-AES

  software written by Jari Ruusu that implements the AES algorithm using a loopback device

plausible deniability

  a means to avoid being coerced into decrypting one's own data for an attacker

USB flash drive

  a small electronic device containing a memory chip and a USB interface

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