Here’s how it works:

1. First, we create an empty partition on the USB drive using fdisk (which stands for “fibre disk” don’t ask me why). This is where our encrypted data will be stored. 2. Next, we format this new partition with LUKS encryption using cryptsetup. LUKS is a popular Linux tool that allows you to create and manage encrypted partitions on your hard drive or USB key. It’s like having a secret safe for all of your important files! 3. Once our partition is encrypted, we can mount it (which means “connect” in computer speak) using the mount command. This will allow us to access and use the data stored inside the encrypted partition just like any other folder on our system. 4. To make sure that our changes persist across reboots, we create a file called persistence.conf (which stands for “persistence configuration”) in the mounted directory. This tells Linux where to look for our encrypted data when it starts up again after a restart or shutdown. 5. Finally, we unmount the partition and close the encryption using cryptsetup luksClose. And that’s it! Now whenever you plug your USB key into another computer with LUKS support (which is pretty much any modern Linux distro), all of your encrypted data will be automatically decrypted and mounted for easy access. If you ever need to completely wipe the data on your USB key without losing any of your encryption settings or keyslots, you can use cryptsetup luksHeaderBackup to create a backup copy of your LUKS header (which is like a map for finding all of your encrypted files). Then, if something goes wrong and you need to restore everything back to its original state, just run cryptsetup luksHeaderRestore with the backup file as an argument. And that’s it! With these simple steps, you can easily set up both encrypted and unencrypted persistence on your USB key using LUKS encryption. It’s like having a secret safe for all of your important files but without any ***** keys or passwords to remember!

However, if we want to share the secret with someone else who is not physically present, we can use public-key cryptography (also known as asymmetric encryption) to create a shared secret between two parties that have never communicated before. This allows us to securely transmit sensitive information over an insecure network without having to worry about interception or eavesdropping by unauthorized third parties.