An amusing story comes from Sweden where a thief returned stolen laptop contents on a USB stick
The professor, who teaches at Umeå University in northern Sweden, was devastated when ten years of work stored on his laptop was stolen.
But to his surprise, a week after the theft, the entire contents of his laptop were posted to him on a USB stick.
I hate to say it but this is a great example of why encryption can be worse than no encryption — recovery of data. A backup is a better answer to the problem of recovery, but this professor says he has not made a backup in ten years.
I find that impossible to believe, since no thief would want a laptop that is ten years old. I will assume therefore that the laptop is only a few years old and at some point the professor must have made a copy or migrated the data. Encryption with a backup would be the best option.
“no thief would want a laptop that is ten years old”
I actually know the opposite is true. You’re thinking of thieves like bot herders who are smart and in it for low risk, high gains. Most common crooks will grab anything they think they will be able to sell. I know a few in this area. One bragged about robbing a bunch of cars in a neighborhood. Most stuff he got he only sold for a few bucks, although he did apparently get a photographers camera and stands.
When trying to figure what they will still, one must look at things from their perspective. What is it worth to them? Can they con someone in the “hood” into buying it? The same guy bought a bunch of surplus cell phones from a company replacing all theirs. I said, “what are you doing with these huge phones that are like 5 years old?” He said “Dude, I can sell these! I can get at least $5 off each one and I just sold 3 old blackberries for $100. Dudes in [confidential] are so stupid. They just buy anything.” Hence, an old laptop isn’t worth it to you, but might be worth it to a thief who knows an impoverished and gullible person needing a laptop.