So question says it all!
what kind of encryption?
gpg
If you want FDE (Full Disk Encryption) For now the best i think is Veracrypt and Diskcryptor.
For email Gpg4win (gpg encryption).
What OS?
What are you using it for? Are you looking to do full disk encryption, containers, individual files, etc? Because my recommendation will be based on your usage
Here are some examples from myself:
Individial files - gpg / Gpg4win on windows
containers - VeraCrypt
email / private message - gpg / EnigMail /Gpg4win for windows
System disk - dmcrypt LUKS on linux / veracrypt on windows
password vault - Keepass
Well I use gpg for files, and LUKS for full disk encryption.
Kinda Off topic: The password vaults is Secure? I cant trust my passwords to something else.
Yeah kepass is secure, you can read about the lengths they go to here and it's widely recognized as one of the best solutions for password vaults. Make sure to use a very strong master password as well as increase the number of key transformation rounds from the default 6000 to something such as 12000 to further protect against dictonary attacks (this is in the security tab when you create your password database)
Secure against what? State level adversaries? - no. The odd laptop thief? - yes
It uses AES encryption and SHA-265 hashes, that is decent encryption. As far as my university prof knows there is no known attack against SHA-265 hashing (well apart from brute force).
Keepass is more than enough for your email password and stuff. Probably your banking credentials too, but you might as well save them off line only (on paper that is).
It depends entirely on your level of paranoia. If your account gets stolen it will probably be due to a browser hijack or something rather than a targeted attack against your password vault. Brute forcing your vault might be more trouble than it is worth.
Keepass got several awards for security (one from the German ministry of information security (short BSI in German)) although that means nothing since there was no audit done. It all depends on what your baseline for trust is. Do you trust proprietary software at all? Keepass uses a Microsoft API for all you know that could be rigged. If you trust Microsoft Keepass is safe enough for you.
Currently infeasibly long. In any case it does not make economic sense to crack your little password vault to gain access to the relatively unimportant online services under your name. As I said: safe enough for normal use.
Basically you are looking at such a scenario Realistic Attack Scenario as the most likely scenario for someone to crack your password vault ;)
