On modern phones and tablets, we store a lot of important and even confidential information. It can be personal photos, correspondence, audio recordings, logins, passwords, bank card details and more. Often, users do not think about how to protect such data, until, for example, they lose their gadget. In the worst case, it falls into the hands of intruders who will gladly use your information for their own purposes. Sometimes that's the whole point. How do you protect your personal data?

Encryption and its meaning

To protect data, a common screen lock password is most often used, for example, a graphic lock or a numeric password. But this method is often unreliable. If desired, this and then all your personal data will be at a glance.Encryption is a more powerful way. The user himself will not feel much of a difference, but if the gadget is lost, even if the attackers can somehow bypass the lock password, they will not have access to your data. This encryption is done quite simply:

"Settings";
"Security" and "Encryption".

After that, you will need to enter the code and wait for some time until all data is encrypted, this can take quite a long time, especially if their volume is large. It happens that over time you may see the message Encryption failure Android, what should I do in this case?

Encryption failure: how to fix the problem?

In order to avoid such problems, you should always back up your data. For example, the Google cloud can become a reliable storage, this is the best option for all Android users. If you did not do this and saw a message about encryption failure, the main thing is not to rush to click on the "Reset phone" button.

First, remove the external memory card, the data on it is not encrypted, this is provided for by the OS developers policy. Only then can you press this button, but be prepared for the fact that you may lose your personal data.

Only in rare cases, after rebooting the system, the failure is eliminated; in case of other outcomes, it will be necessary to roll back until the failure was detected.

Be careful about encrypting your data so you don't fall victim to your own vigilance.

The FBI has tried through the courts to twist the hands of Apple, which does not want to create a code to bypass its own security system. A critical vulnerability has been discovered in the Android kernel that allows superuser access bypassing all security mechanisms. Although these two events are not related to each other, they coincided in time, clearly demonstrating the differences in the security system of the two popular mobile operating systems. Let's put aside for a minute the issue of a critical vulnerability in the Android kernel, which is unlikely to ever be fixed by most manufacturers in already released models, and consider the data encryption mechanisms in Android and Apple iOS. But first, let's talk about why encryption is needed in mobile devices at all.

Why encrypt your phone?

An honest person has nothing to hide - the most popular leitmotif that sounds after every publication on the topic of data protection. “I have nothing to hide,” say many users. Alas, much more often this means just the certainty that no one will bother to get into the data of a particular Vasya Pupkin, because who is interested in them at all? Practice shows that this is not the case. We will not go far: literally last week, the career of a school teacher who left her phone on the table for a moment ended with dismissal. The students instantly unlocked the apparatus and extracted photographs of the teacher from it in a form that is condemned by the puritanical morality of American society. The incident was a sufficient reason for the dismissal of the teacher. Stories like this happen almost daily.

How unencrypted phones are hacked

Let's not go into details, just keep in mind: data from an unencrypted phone can be retrieved in almost a hundred percent of cases. “Almost” here refers rather to cases where the phone was physically damaged or destroyed just prior to data collection. Many Android and Windows Phone devices have a service mode that allows you to merge all data from the device's memory via a regular USB cable. This applies to most devices on the Qualcomm platform (HS-USB mode, which works even when the bootloader is locked), on Chinese smartphones with MediaTek (MTK), Spreadtrum and Allwinner processors (if the bootloader is unlocked), as well as all LG smartphones (there generally convenient service mode that allows you to merge data even from a "ripped" device).

But even if the phone does not have a service "backdoor", the data from the device can still be obtained by disassembling the device and connecting to the JTAG test port. In the most advanced cases, the eMMC chip is removed from the device, which is inserted into the simplest and very cheap adapter and works according to the same protocol as the most common SD card. If the data has not been encrypted, everything is easily extracted from the phone, down to the authentication tokens that provide access to your cloud storage.

What if encryption was turned on? In older versions of Android (up to 4.4 inclusive), this could be bypassed (except, however, for devices made by Samsung). But in Android 5.0, the strong encryption mode finally appeared. But is it as useful as Google suggests? Let's try to figure it out.

Android 5.0-6.0

The first Android 5.0 device was the Google Nexus 6, released in 2014 by Motorola. At that time, 64-bit mobile processors with the ARMv8 architecture were already actively promoted, but Qualcomm did not have a ready-made solution on this platform. As a result, the Nexus 6 used the Snapdragon 805 system logic set, based on Qualcomm's own 32-bit cores.

Why is it important? The fact is that processors based on the ARMv8 architecture have a built-in set of instructions to accelerate streaming data encryption, while 32-bit ARMv7 processors do not have such instructions.

So watch your hands. There are no instructions for accelerating crypto in the processor, so Qualcomm has built a dedicated hardware module into the system logic set, designed to perform the same functions. But something went wrong with Google. Either the drivers were not finished at the time of release, or Qualcomm did not provide the source codes (or did not allow them to be published in AOSP). The details are not known to the public, but the result is known: the Nexus 6 shocked reviewers with its extremely slow reading speed. How slow is it? Something like this:

The reason for the eight-fold lag behind the "little brother", the Motorola Moto X 2014 smartphone, is simple: the encryption that was forcibly enabled, implemented by the company at the software level. In real life, Nexus 6 users on the original firmware version complained about numerous lags and freezes, noticeable heating of the device and relatively weak autonomy. Installing a kernel that disables forcibly activated encryption solved these problems at once.

However, firmware is such a thing, after all, you can finish it, right? Especially if you are Google, have unlimited finances and have the most qualified developers on the staff. Well, let's see what happened next.

And then there was Android 5.1 (six months later), in which the necessary drivers for working with the hardware accelerator were first added to the preliminary version of the firmware, and then removed again in the final one due to serious problems with the sleep mode. Then there was Android 6.0, at the time of the release of which users had already lost interest in this game and began to disable encryption by any means, using third-party kernels. Or do not disable it if the read speed of 25-30 MB / s is sufficient.

Android 7.0

Ok, but in Android 7 was it possible to fix a serious problem of the flagship device, which is already almost two years old? You can, and it was fixed! Elcomsoft labs compared the performance of two identical Nexus 6s, one of which was running Android 6.0.1 with the ElementalX kernel (and encryption disabled), while the other was running the first pre-release version of Android 7 with default settings ( encryption enabled). The result is obvious:

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Do you use your Android smartphone (tablet) to take personal photos, read important emails, shop online with your credit card, edit and transfer important documents? If your answer is yes, then you should consider encrypting your device.

Unlike iPhones, Android devices do not automatically encrypt the data stored on them even if you use a password to unlock the device, but if you are using Android Gingerbread 2.3.4 or higher, then encryption is easy to enable.

Encrypting your phone means that if your phone is locked, your files are encrypted. Any files sent to and received from your phone will not be encrypted unless you use additional methods.

The only difference between an unencrypted phone and an encrypted phone from the user's point of view is that you will now have to use a password to unlock the phone (tablet).

If your phone is not encrypted, then the password is just a screen lock. In fact, in this case, the password simply locks the screen - that is, it does nothing to protect the files that are stored on the device. So, if attackers find a way to bypass the lock screen, then they get full access to your files.

In case the phone is encrypted, the password is the key that decrypts the encrypted files.

That is, when the phone is locked, all data is encrypted, and even if attackers find a way to bypass the lock screen, then all they find is encrypted data.

How do I enable encryption on an Android device?

1. Open the Settings menu.

2. In Settings, select Security\u003e Encryption (Encrypt device).

3. As required, you must enter a password that is at least six characters long, at least one of which is a number.

As soon as you set the password, the process of encrypting your files will start. Encryption can take an hour or more, so you must turn on the charger before encryption begins.

Once the encryption process is complete, you're done! Make sure to save your password in a safe place as it will come in handy every time you want to access your phone. Please note that if you forget your password, there is currently no way to recover it.

In fact, encrypting Android devices, along with obvious advantages, has significant disadvantages:

Imagine that every time you want to call, you need to type a complex password. I wonder how soon you get tired of this?
You will not be able to decrypt an encrypted device, it is simply not provided. There is only one way to decrypt - reset the phone to factory settings. In this case, of course, all your data will be lost. It will look especially interesting if you forget to make a backup copy first.

Thus, today there is a difficult choice - either you encrypt your device and put up with huge inconveniences, or you get usability, but at the expense of security. Which path will you choose? I dont know. Which path would I choose? I can't answer either. I just do not know.

Vladimir BEZMALY , MVP Consumer Security, Microsoft Security Trusted Advisor

During the operation of any Android phone or tablet, you may encounter an error "Encryption failed"preventing the device from starting correctly. This is one of the most intractable problems, which, as a rule, cannot be eliminated by standard methods. Today we will tell you about the basic steps to save information from memory and the nuances of restoring the phone.

Regardless of the steps described below, restore the device yourself from "Encryption failure"usually won't work. This should be taken into account in advance and be careful at all stages.

Method 1: Basic steps

When encryption fails and until the first press of the only on-screen button "Reset" it is necessary to turn off the device using the power button on the case and remove the memory card, if one was installed in a special slot. If the memory card compartment is accessible without removing the battery, you do not have to turn off, but immediately remove the external memory.

On a device with a pre-enabled function USB Debugging in section "For developers" you can try connecting to a PC via a USB cable and pulling out all important files. However, with the option disabled, this cannot be done, so the data will be irretrievably lost anyway.

Having dealt with the preparation, you can use the button "Reset" or "Reset" on the device screen to start the reboot. In some rare situations, even this may be enough to restore the correct operation of the operating system.

Unfortunately, most often this will only lead to permanent data loss, and the notification will appear on the screen again "Encryption failed"... To save at least some data, you can use the web version of your Google account to save files in the cloud and disable synchronization on your device.

Method 2: flashing the device

The only thing that can be done to restore the phone's performance is to install a new compatible firmware. This procedure has been described in detail in other articles on our website and in fact does not differ in the current situation. That being said, it's best to use the official firmware from the manufacturer's website.

Method 3: Service Center

Quite often, a regular firmware update of a device does not lead to positive results and the same error will appear when turned on. In this case, it would be most correct to contact the service center to specialists, since intervention in the hardware component is necessary to fix the problem. Although this can be done independently, but only with the appropriate knowledge.

Conclusion

We have presented all possible actions in the event of "Encryption failure" on Android and we hope you don't have any questions. One way or another, the problem is serious and it is best to immediately contact a professional to diagnose and repair the device.

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Android encryption failed: what to do?

We store a lot of important and even confidential information on modern phones and tablets. It can be personal photos, correspondence, audio recordings, logins, passwords, bank card details and more. Often, users do not think about how to protect such data, until, for example, they lose their gadget. In the worst case, it falls into the hands of intruders who will gladly use your information for their own purposes. Sometimes this is the whole point of stealing your phone. How do you protect your personal data?

Encryption and its meaning

To protect data, a common screen lock password is most often used, for example, a graphic lock or a numeric password. But this method is often unreliable. If you wish, such protection can be bypassed and then all your personal data will be at a glance.Encryption is a more powerful way. The user himself will not feel much of a difference, but if the gadget is lost, even if the attackers can somehow bypass the lock password, they will not have access to your data. This encryption is done quite simply:
Explay Fresh - Hard Reset on Smartphone

"Settings"; "Security" and "Encryption".

Encryption failure: how to fix the problem?

Only in rare cases, after rebooting the system, the failure is eliminated; in case of other outcomes, it will be necessary to roll back until the failure was detected.

Be careful about encrypting your data so you don't fall victim to your own vigilance.