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EncFS - an Encrypted Filesystem
About
EncFS provides an encrypted filesystem in user-space. It runs in userspace, using the FUSE library for the filesystem interface. EncFS is open source software, licensed under the LGPL.
EncFS is now over 10 years old (first release in 2003). It came about because older NFS-based encrypted filesystems such as CFS had not kept pace with Linux development. When FUSE became available, I wrote a CFS replacement for my own use and released the first version to Open Source in 2003.
As with most encrypted filesystems, Encfs was meant to provide security against off-line attacks; ie your notebook or backups fall into the wrong hands, etc. EncFS encrypts individual files, by translating all requests for the virtual EncFS filesystem into the equivalent encrypted operations on the raw filesystem.
Status
Over the last 10 years, a number of good alternatives have grown up. Computing power has increased to the point where it is reasonable to encrypt the entire filesystem of personal computers (and even mobile phones!). On Linux, ecryptfs provides a nice dynamically mountable encrypted home directory, and is well integrated in distributions I use, such as Ubuntu.
EncFS has been dormant for a while. I've started cleaning up in order to try and provide a better base for a version 2, but whether EncFS flowers again depends upon community interest. In order to make it easier for anyone to contribute, I'm looking at Github as the next home for EncFS. So if you're interested in EncFS, please dive in!
GitHub page
GitHub hosting for EncFS is in progress. See also the original, and more complete, introduction page at http://www.arg0.net/encfs