Unattended reboots with encrypted disks

You likely have a small home server or NAS storing precious photos and sensitive documents, right? It's probable that these drives are encrypted for security. However, if you need to reboot your machine, you must manually enter a passphrase to regain access to your files. This defeats the purpose of disk encryption, doesn't it? A thief could easily steal your entire box, plug it into another location, and gain access to your files without needing your passphrase.

So, which is it? Conveniences of automatic reboots or data protection through manual key management? With ZKeys—a new project I'm launching today—you can enjoy both simplicity and robust security. ZKeys is a managed service that stores encryption passphrases off-site. Client machines fetch these encryption keys from the service and keep them active via periodic keepalive messages.

If the server fails to receive these messages for an extended period (e.g., due to theft), the access to the key is automatically locked, granting you automatic, passwordless reboots while preserving the protection of your data.