1

We have a client with very specific security needs. He needs a laptop in which all his information is protected and inaccessible in case of theft. He says there could be people who want to access that information so we must provide a good encryption technology.

We have researched and reached Bitlocker and Veracrypt. But we want to get information about these 2 technogies before choose one:

  • Which has a greater impact on laptop performance? It will be a powerful computer (probably a Slimbook Pro X with i7 and 32GB RAM, SSD drive etc) but we don't want to waste resources.
  • Is it possible to use them with dual boot windows and linux? This will also be the client's personal computer and has told us that he would like to have this possibility.
Improve this question
5
  • 1
    If you are going the dual-boot route, Veracrypt may be marginally easier to get working then bitlocker in Linux - Bitlocker is "more professional" then Veracrypt in a Windows environment. Consider LUKS for Linux, Bitlocker for windows and Veracrypt for shared data.
    – davidgo
    Commented Sep 5, 2019 at 19:32
  • In my opinion, if he is this specific about his security, he shouldn't be using a work laptop alongside his personal use. Choose Windows or Linux, and follow industry security best practice. Then get a different machine for their personal use.
    – Randomhero
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 9:58
  • @davidgo Thank you. I will research about LUKS. I think about security is almost the same true?
    – BraveOtter
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 10:06
  • @Randomhero Yes. We said that to him... But he say he dont want to take two laptops in his travels... In any case, the dual boot is not mandatory. It's just something that he has requested us as an extra.
    – BraveOtter
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 10:09
  • Yes, they are equivalent. LUKS is best practice for Linux, like Bitlocker is for Windows. There is an overhead, but instead of dual booting have you considered running one OS as a VM inside the other. If you use a file backing device the virtualized OS does not.need to be encrypted.
    – davidgo
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 15:00

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

  1. Bitlocker will be faster than Veracrypt, since it has better integration into the OS which gives performance boosts. This can be taken as a rule of thumb. Tools with tight OS integration usually perform better than third party tools.

  2. As a side note: In its standard settings, a Bitlocker decryption key will be stored in Microsoft's cloud.

  3. Yes dual boot is possible. Just make sure that you activate Bitlocker after installing Linux.

Improve this answer
1
  • I agree as a main rule. But it definitely doesn't have to be true for BL...we're talking Microsoft here!!! Only a benchmark comparison can tell. A bit off topic but still: try to give MS's software RAID5 a spin...we're talking horrible 20MB/s. I get 350MB/s on my Linux box (both 100% software RAID). Apples and pears I know! But just an example of how bad MS can code sometimes, so don't trust it to much!
    – MrCalvin
    Commented Dec 9, 2021 at 16:08

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .