How far would you like to go to safeguard your Mac from unauthorised access? If the answer to that question is, as far as it takes, you'd probably be interested in knowing about FileVault – a highly advanced encryption mechanism that allows you to apply an extra layer of security to your Mac HDD as well as Mac-based external USBs. Stay with us as we cover the salient features of File Vault and describe the process that you can use to protect your internal and external hard drives with this utility.
- How to encrypt your disk in Mac OS X FileVault, Apple's disk encryption technology for Macs, is simple to enable. Open System Preferences, click on the Security & Privacy icon, and switch to the.
- Mac OS X LLVM/gcc based crypt fuction is borked junk, hardwired to only use DES, a proven breakable hash, worse than MD5. (Call it with the salt string as $6$, and you will get back a 13 char DES hash.
How to Encrypt Mac HDD and External USB in Mac OS X El Capitan using FileVault
What is FileVault?
Using AES-256 encryption specification for your 7z files. Over the years your Mac will become older and will not support. May 24, 2018 Protect files with AES-256 encryption Encrypto lets you encrypt files before sending them to friends or coworkers. Drop a file into Encrypto, set a password, and then send it with added security. As of macOS Mojave, you can easily encrypt and decrypt generic mass storage devices on-the-go using Finder. This uses XTS-AES encryption, which is the same type of encryption that the macOS FileVault 2 system uses. Keep in mind that using Finder to encrypt a thumb drive will restrict its usage to macOS. Format: Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the file system. Encryption: Choose either 128-bit or 256-bit AES encryption. 256-bit is more secure, while 128-bit is faster. If you're encrypting sensitive files, you'll probably want to choose 256-bit and accept the slight slow-down for more security.
Let's start with a brief introduction. FileVault is a full-disk encryption scheme that uses XTS-AES 128 encryption to help prevent unauthorized access to your Mac. First introduced in 2003, the scheme encrypts and decrypts Mac volumes on-the-fly. When the Mac is shut down, FileVault encrypts it and locks it with a password. To access the system, the user must key in the password to unlock and decrypt it.
To use FileVault safely, you must always remember your password correctly. You can choose to backup your password on Apple server. The backup is protected by three security questions. To access the backed up password, you'll have to answer the security questions.
The current version of FileVault is known as FileVault 2, and it is an improved version of the original or 'Legacy FileVault.' FileVault 2 cannot be used with every Mac and all drive configurations. It can only be enabled on a single drive containing OS X and Recovery partitions.
In addition to encrypting Mac hard disk drive, FileVault 2 also helps you encrypt removable drives. This allows you to protect your Time Machine backup drives. Additional advantages of the scheme include the ability to instantly wipe all encryption keys and all data from your Mac, thus making all information completely inaccessible. It is thus quite a handy utility to protect your Mac and the crucial data on it.
Though it's probably the most efficient way of making sure your data is always safe, FileVault 2 has its drawbacks, degraded performance being a major one. Applying encryption and decryption on-the-fly takes its toll on the processor and systems with older Core CPUs experience significant performance lag.
An aspect that you should take care of while using FileVault 2 is that it is transparent to anyone once the system is logged in. This means that once you've unlocked and decrypted the Mac with your password if anyone gains access to the machine all your data could very well be stolen. Hence, you must ensure that you don't leave your Mac unattended if it is unlocked. To fully lock the encrypted drive, the best way is a full shutdown of the Mac.
How to Enable FileVault on Mac HDD
You can enable FileVault encryption on your Mac hard disk drive with the following steps:
Step #1. Log in to OS X El Capitan with an administrator account.
Step #2. Go to Apple menu (top left corner) → System Preference.
Step #3. Click on Security & Privacy.
Step #4. Select the FileVault tab and click on the padlock (bottom left corner of the pop-up.)
Step #5. Enter the administrator name and password when prompted.
Step #6. Click on the 'Turn On FileVault' button.
If more than one user has the account on your Mac, each user will need to key in their password to unlock the disk. The Mac will display a message for this when you activate FileVault. Click the 'Enable User' button and enter the user's password. All user accounts added after enabling FileVault are automatically enabled.
Note: By default, FileVault uses your account password to encrypt the drive. In case you forget it, a recovery key is generated to allow you to still unlock the drive. However, this key is displayed only once, so if and when it happens, make a note of the key and store it safely.
Once FileVault is successfully enabled, your Mac will reboot and will prompt you to login with your account credentials. You'll need to provide your password each time you wish to login once FileVault is enabled. When logged in, the encryption mechanism goes on in the background so you can continue using the Mac without any hurdles.
How to Enable FileVault on Mac external USB
Since most USB drives are formatted using the FAT file system, you won't be able to encrypt it directly. First, you'll need to reformat the external USB to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. Thereafter, you'll be able to turn on encryption on it. Once encrypted, it will be converted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) file system.
Here are the steps to encrypt external USB with FileVault:
Step #1. Open Finder and select external USB from the list of drives on the left.
Step #2. Right-click and select Encrypt & flashdrivename> Aetherlude mac os.
Step #3. Key-in encryption password, verify it and also provide a hint when prompted.
Note: The encryption process might take a while depending upon the size of the USB. There won't be a progress indicator so the only way to tell would be the indicator light on the USB. Don't disconnect until the light keeps flickering.
Once the drive is encrypted, you'll be prompted to enter the password you set every time you wish to access the drive.
How to Break the Encryption on a USB Drive
This section explains the steps to decrypt an external USB that's encrypted with FileVault 2.
Note: Decryption formats the drive so to avoid data loss, clone the encrypted drive before decrypting it.
Step #1. Log in to OS X El Capitan with an administrator account.
Step #2. Go to Utilities → Application → Finder and launch Terminal.
Step #3. Type diskutil cs list and press Return.
Step #5. In the resultant code, copy the alphanumeric sequence adjacent to 'Logical Volume Group.'
Step #6. Type diskutil cs delete XXXX____YYYY___ZZZZ___XYZ and press return.
Once the drive is encrypted, you'll be prompted to enter the password you set every time you wish to access the drive.
How to Break the Encryption on a USB Drive
This section explains the steps to decrypt an external USB that's encrypted with FileVault 2.
Note: Decryption formats the drive so to avoid data loss, clone the encrypted drive before decrypting it.
Step #1. Log in to OS X El Capitan with an administrator account.
Step #2. Go to Utilities → Application → Finder and launch Terminal.
Step #3. Type diskutil cs list and press Return.
Step #5. In the resultant code, copy the alphanumeric sequence adjacent to 'Logical Volume Group.'
Step #6. Type diskutil cs delete XXXX____YYYY___ZZZZ___XYZ and press return.
How to Turn Off Encryption on Mac HDD and External Drive
To turn off encryption on the drive, follow the below-mentioned steps:
Step #1. Log in to OS X El Capitan with an administrator account.
Step #2. Go to Apple menu (top left corner) → System Preference → Security & Privacy.
Step #3. Select the FileVault tab and click on the padlock (bottom left corner of the pop-up.)
Step #4. Enter the administrator name and password when prompted.
Step #5. Click on the 'Turn Off FileVault' button.
Step #6. Restart your Mac.
To conclude
FileVault 2 is an extremely useful scheme to protect your Mac, but it can prove to be costly performance-wise. Also, there are precautions you should consider when working with it so please use it wisely or else you could end up with crucial data that's locked up in your Mac hard drive or external USB drive forever.
Mac computers that have the Apple T2 Security Chip integrate security into both software and hardware to provide encrypted-storage capabilities. Data on the built-in, solid-state drive (SSD) is encrypted using a hardware-accelerated AES engine built into the T2 chip. This encryption is performed with 256-bit keys tied to a unique identifier within the T2 chip.
The advanced encryption technology integrated into the T2 chip provides line-speed encryption, but it also means that if the portion of the T2 chip containing your encryption keys becomes damaged, you might need to restore the content of your drive from a backup. This content includes system files, apps, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents. Voice of god mac os.
Always back up your content to a secure external drive or other secure backup location so that you can restore it, if necessary. You should also turn on FileVault for additional security, because without FileVault enabled, your encrypted SSDs automatically mount and decrypt when connected to your Mac.
Make a backup
Set up Time Machine or another backup method to regularly back up your Mac to a secure external source.
Files that you store in iCloud Drive, as well as photos and videos that you store in iCloud Photo Library, are automatically uploaded to iCloud. When you use iCloud Photo Library, full-resolution photos and videos are stored on your Mac by default and included in a Time Machine backup. If you choose to optimize iCloud Photo Library on your Mac, the full-resolution originals are not included in a Time Machine backup.
Turn on FileVault
Though the SSD in computers that have the Apple T2 Security Chip is encrypted, you should turn on FileVault so that your Mac requires a password to decrypt your data.
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To turn on FileVault, follow these steps:
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- Choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Security & Privacy.
- Click the FileVault tab.
- Click , then enter an administrator name and password.
- Click Turn On FileVault.
