So Synology now has the option to encrypt a full volume. The setup wizard says it protects against physical loss and theft of the device/hard drives. I’m much more worried about a cyber attack. It seems far more likely that someone would penetrate my network and go after the data on my NAS, than physically break into my building and walk out with my Synology.
Does volume encryption help at all from a cyber attack? Also, it mentions that performance may be affected. Does anyone know how much of an impact this would have?
It all comes down to what you want in your environment. You are correct that if someone were to penetrate your network and somehow get into your NAS/Shares then encryption won’t help you. However if you are more worried about access to your NAS/Shares then you will need to take the appropriate steps on your firewall to only allow the appropriate devices access to your NAS/Shares.
I have a QNAP NAS the encryption probably works the same as the Synology, the time you’ll really notice the impact is if you power-on the unit. It will take a while before all the drives have been decrypted and available, depends on the amount of data.
If this is in your home, there is probably more of a chance of having the unit stolen. In which case there is a benefit. It won’t make much of a difference if your network is attacked.
The other situation you might want to consider, is if you have to rescue data then it might prove to be a bit more challenging from the failed hdd. You might want to test this on a drive for your own peace of mind.
