Keeping your files private and secure is more important than ever, since just about every aspect of our offline lives is reflected in the digital realm. There are plenty of simple steps you can take to improve your personal security, but the more tech-savvy might be tempted to go the extra mile and encrypt your key files locally.

Encrypting your local files can add an extra layer of protection to your most important documents. But should you bother, and do the benefits outweigh the potential downsides? We'll explore why you might want to encrypt your local files, and some of the potential problems with doing so.

Your files are likely already encrypted

Modern operating systems handle disk encryption for you

Nearly all modern operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and most popular Linux distributions, handle disk encryption by default or offer easy ways to enable it. Windows, for instance, uses 'Device Encryption' (or BitLocker in the Pro and Enterprise versions), while macOS has FileVault, and Ubuntu has LUKS. You may need to enable this (either during setup or retrospectively) on Windows and Linux, while macOS enables FileVault by default. These tools encrypt the entire disk, protecting your data transparently without any additional steps to lock and unlock your files.

This means that if someone were to physically steal your device, they wouldn't be able to access your files without your password. This encryption is transparent to the user, requiring you to unlock your disk on startup. For the average user, the built-in encryption provided by modern operating systems should be more than sufficient to protect your data.

Encrypting sensitive files can be dangerous

You're unlikely to be able to recover if you forget your password

One of the biggest risks with encrypting sensitive files is the potential for permanent data loss. If you forget the password or encryption key, there's usually no way to recover the encrypted files. This is a significant consideration, especially if the data is critical and irreplaceable.

Many people underestimate the importance of securely storing their encryption keys and passwords. Unlike typical passwords that can often be reset, encryption keys are designed to be nearly impossible to recover. Many popular services (like password managers) get around this problem by offering recovery codes - essentially a carefully crafted backdoor to restore access to your account if required. You're unlikely to get this with local encryption methods, meaning that if you lose your key, your files and data will be lost.

Encrypting your files probably won't protect you, anyway

An attacker with access to your PC could use other methods to access your data

While encrypting individual files might intrinsically seem like an added security layer, it may not be as effective as you think. If a malicious attacker were to gain access to your computer, they can often find ways to bypass or exploit the encryption. Installing a keylogger to capture your keystrokes would be a simple example, which would allow an attacker to capture your password or encryption key.

More sophisticated attacks exist as well, but you probably won't encounter these outside of interactions with law enforcement. So, while it's not completely redundant to encrypt specific files, you're likely better off focusing on good overall security, including network and physical security, as well as ensuring your operating system encryption is correctly configured.

Consider how you're storing your most sensitive data

If you're considering enabling encryption for specific files, you might want to step back and consider how you store your data. Depending on what data you're storing, you might find a safer (and arguably just as secure) option in using a password manager. These are specifically designed to store critical and highly sensitive data, while also offering options for recovery, second-factor authentication, and hardware key support. Some password managers even have built in file-storage, and most have sections for notes or other text-based content that doesn't necessarily have to fit into a password field.

You might also want to consider storing your data in a hardware key, many of which handle specific file encryption for you and are designed to be extremely secure, with a tiny attack surface.

Encrypting your files can improve your security, but the use case is rare

Ultimately, encrypting your files outside your normal operating system encryption will improve your security. However, it's not foolproof, and introduces a significant risk that you might lose access to your files. If you don't have a very strong and specific reason for encrypting your files locally, we'd recommend limiting your use of encryption to your operating systems' implementation of whole-disk encryption.

There are still alternative ways to store files securely - a password manager with a file vault, an encrypted USB stick, or even a hardware key with onboard storage are all good options with less potential for data loss and offer a similar level of security.