On-the-fly encryption

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On-the-fly encryption (OTFE) is a term often used when referring to disk encryption software. "On-the-fly" refers to the fact that the files are accessible immediately after providing the key, and the entire volume is typically mounted as if it were a physical drive, making the files just as accessible as any unencrypted ones.

On-the-fly encryption requires the use of device drivers enabling the encryption process to be transparent to the end user. Although administrator access rights are normally required to install such drivers, encrypted volumes can typically be used by normal users without these rights.

In general, every method in which data is transparently encrypted on write and decrypted on read can be called on-the-fly encryption (OTFE).