Linux Bitlocker equivalent

Question

Bitlocker is a harddrive encryption data protection tool which comes with Windows Vista Ultimate and 7. Does anyone know an equivalent for Linux distros like Fedora and Ubuntu?

Answer 1

TrueCrypt

Main Features:

• Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
• Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
• Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
• Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
• Parallelization and pipelining allow data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted.
• Encryption can be hardware-accelerated on modern processors.
• Provides plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
• Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.

Answer 2

1. Most Linux distros give you full HD encryption option on installation (via LUKS). If you have installed many major distros yourself in the past few years you should have seen this.
2. Some distros give you per-user directory encryption options on installation (via ecryptfs). Ubuntu's UNR is an example.

Answer 3

Another way is to create an encrypted image that you mount using a local loopback.

This will allow you to 'open' an encrpyted image (which is kept on disk), modify its contents and upon unmounting, will be encrypted. Creates a nice easy way to transport encrypted files (just send the image).

A good ref is located here.