Encrypted home partition on Linux systems
Encrypting the /home partition on Linux systems is a pretty easy thing
to do. The following steps covers the setup on Debian systems.
Please note that encrypting your home is better than nothing but, if you don't have a swap partition encrypted as well, some information may still be recovered. So, either encrypt your swap file too (not covered here) or go without one.
Encrypting the home partition
Ensure that you have cryptsetup package installed:
#> aptitude install cryptsetup
Backup the content of your /home directory and unmount the partition:
#> tar cvf /some/dir/home-backup.tar /home
#> umount /home
Create an encrypted LUKS partition and map it:
#> cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sda5
#> cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda5 cryptohome
Format the encrypted partition and mount it:
#> mkfs.ext3 /dev/mapper/cryptohome
#> mount /dev/mapper/cryptohome /home
Restore the content of your /home directory from the backup:
#> tar xvf /some/dir/home-backup.tar -C /
Update initrd:
#> update-initramfs -u
Create an entry for the encrypted partition in /et/crypttab:
cryptohome /dev/sda2 none luks
Update /etc/fstab and change the entry for the /home partition:
/dev/mapper/cryptohome /home ext3 defaults 0 2
Reboot the system and you'll have your home encrypted.