content: but we know with time that the hard drive can be cracked because computers are getting more and more powerful and cheaper and cheaper.  That's not how encryption works in the real world. That's what they make you think in movies, but in the real world no amount of "faster computers" can crack a 512 but password. If he encrypted with a good password with, e.g., 512 bit AES - then even if every atom in the universe was a 1 GHZ computer running from the beginning of time only in decrypting his derive - they would still not be able to decrypt it. It has to be a good password though, but if it were a weak password - I assume they would have found it already.