BIOS password on SSD and/or disk encryption?

[dx486]

I see many threads on this forum about cracking BIOS passwords, especially "ATA" disk passwords.

How secure is a BIOS password of a SSD?

In particular, SSD of a Toshiba Portege Z30 series notebook?

I am not holding government secrets however I am sensitive about my privacy and my clients' privacy. Do you think it is a good idea to rely on BIOS password on this SSD or should I encrypt its partitions using LUKS?

What would be negative effects of using LUKS on SSD? Significant perfomance / lifespan drops?

I know it is probably better to use software encryption (as well) but I want to hear your thoughts on this situaton.

Thank you.

[fzabkar]

Any device that stores the actual password on the device itself is theoretically exploitable. The fact that a manufacturer would do this begs the question, why?

The only security product I would trust is an open-source one. To my knowledge, nobody has demonstrated an exploit against TrueCrypt or its more modern developments.

You might like to read this paper:

got HW crypto? - On the (in)security of a Self-Encrypting Drive series:
https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/1002.pdf