Non-technical Encryption Primer (Simplified)

Encryption is the art of hiding data in plain sight. It will be private when being transported or simply sitting on a hard drive.

There are two ways to break an encrypted file: brute force attack or breaking the password. Depending on the level of encryption, the brute force attack might require significant resources so resources that even government probably will not be able to open your encrypted laptop.

Breaking the password is the easiest. Mostly this is simply cracking weak passwords.

The lesson here is that you can keep your data very safe, even if you loose possession or control over a copy of the data, by using a good password and up-to-date encryption software.