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This software is compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 and higher versions. And helps users to unlock a wide range of storage devices like external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card and etc. On Mac with the encryption password or recovery key file. Use Lion's FileVault 2 to encrypt your Mac's internal drive Apple latest Mac operating system, OS X 10.7 Lion includes FileVault 2, the latest version of Apple’s method of file encryption. Oct 16, 2017 So I erased it using the gui; and formatted it as OS X Extended (Journaled). There was no option to erase it and reformat it as OS X Extended (Journaled) Encrypted. After the USB drive was erased, no partition was shown in the gui. I checked the USB drive using the diskutil 'list' command, and it showed no partitioning. Jan 18, 2016 TrueCrypt on Mac OS X TrueCrypt is a free utility that will allow you to encrypt your data, be it on a USB drive or your computer’s main drive, on the fly. This allows you to keep data hidden; be it grades, patient files, that new patent you are working on, or embarrassing vacation photos you just can’t bring yourself to delete. Oct 22, 2018 With Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere For Mac, you can easily encrypt volumes with BitLocker Drive Encryption in macOS & Mac OS X, and this article will help you explain how it works. Tips: Terminating the program, removing the drive or abnormal power off during encryption will result in data corruption, so it is recommended that you back up the files.
FileVault is a disk encryption program in Mac OS X 10.3 (2003) and later. It performs on-the-fly encryption with volumes on Mac computers.
Versions and key features[edit]
FileVault was introduced with Mac OS X Panther (10.3),[1] and could only be applied to a user's home directory, not the startup volume. The operating system uses an encrypted sparse disk image (a large single file) to present a volume for the home directory. Mac OS X Leopard and Mac OS X Snow Leopard use more modern sparse bundle disk images[2] which spread the data over 8 MB files (called bands) within a bundle. Apple refers to this original iteration of FileVault as legacy FileVault.[3]
Mac OS X Lion (2011) and newer offer FileVault 2,[3] which is a significant redesign. This encrypts the entire OS X startup volume and typically includes the home directory, abandoning the disk image approach. For this approach to disk encryption, authorised users' information is loaded from a separate non-encrypted boot volume[4] (partition/slice type Apple_Boot).
FileVault[edit]
The original version of FileVault was added in Mac OS X Panther to encrypt a user's home directory.
Master passwords and recovery keys[edit]![]()
When FileVault is enabled the system invites the user to create a master password for the computer. If a user password is forgotten, the master password or recovery key may be used to decrypt the files instead.
Migration[edit]
Migration of FileVault home directories is subject to two limitations:[5]
If Migration Assistant has already been used or if there are user accounts on the target:
If transferring FileVault data from a previous Mac that uses 10.4 using the built-in utility to move data to a new machine, the data continues to be stored in the old sparse image format, and the user must turn FileVault off and then on again to re-encrypt in the new sparse bundle format.
Manual encryption[edit]
Instead of using FileVault to encrypt a user's home directory, using Disk Utility a user can create an encrypted disk image themselves and store any subset of their home directory in there (for example, ~/Documents/private). This encrypted image behaves similar to a Filevault encrypted home directory, but is under the user's maintenance.
Encrypting only a part of a user's home directory might be problematic when applications need access to the encrypted files, which will not be available until the user mounts the encrypted image. This can be mitigated to a certain extent by making symbolic links for these specific files.
Limitations and issues[edit]Backups[edit]
Without Mac OS X Server, Time Machine will back up a FileVault home directory only while the user is logged out. In such cases, Time Machine is limited to backing up the home directory in its entirety. Using Mac OS X Server as a Time Machine destination, backups of FileVault home directories occur while users are logged in.
Because FileVault restricts the ways in which other users' processes can access the user's content, some third party backup solutions can back up the contents of a user's FileVault home directory only if other parts of the computer (including other users' home directories) are excluded.[6][7]
Issues[edit]
Several shortcomings were identified in Legacy FileVault. Its security can be broken by cracking either 1024-bit RSA or 3DES-EDE.
Legacy FileVault used the CBC mode of operation (see disk encryption theory); FileVault 2 uses stronger XTS-AESW mode. Another issue is storage of keys in the macOS 'safe sleep' mode.[8] A study published in 2008 found data remanence in dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), with data retention of seconds to minutes at room temperature and much longer times when memory chips were cooled to low temperature. The study authors were able to use a cold boot attack to recover cryptographic keys for several popular disk encryption systems, including FileVault, by taking advantage of redundancy in the way keys are stored after they have been expanded for efficient use, such as in key scheduling. The authors recommend that computers be powered down, rather than be left in a 'sleep' state, when not in physical control by the owner.[9]
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Early versions of FileVault automatically stored the user's passphrase in the system keychain, requiring the user to notice and manually disable this security hole.
In 2006, following a talk at the 23rd Chaos Communication Congress titled Unlocking FileVault: An Analysis of Apple's Encrypted Disk Storage System, Jacob Appelbaum & Ralf-Philipp Weinmann released VileFault which decrypts encrypted Mac OS X disk image files.[10]
A free space wipe using Disk Utility left a large portion of previously deleted file remnants intact. Similarly, FileVault compact operations only wiped small parts of previously deleted data.[11]
FileVault 2[edit]Security[edit]
FileVault uses the user's login password as the encryption pass phrase. It uses the AES-XTS mode of AES with 128 bit blocks and a 256 bit key to encrypt the disk, as recommended by NIST.[12][13] Only unlock-enabled users can start or unlock the drive. Once unlocked, other users may also use the computer until it is shut down.[3]
Performance[edit]Best File Encryption For Mac
The I/O performance penalty for using FileVault 2 was found to be in the order of around 3% when using CPUs with the AES instruction set, such as the Intel Core i and MacOS 10.10.3.[14] Performance deterioration will be larger for CPUs without this instruction set, such as older Core CPUs.
Master passwords and recovery keys[edit]
When FileVault 2 is enabled while the system is running, the system creates and displays a recovery key for the computer, and optionally offers the user to store the key with Apple. The 120 bit recovery key is encoded with all letters and numbers 1 through 9, and read from /dev/random, and therefore relies on the security of the PRNG used in macOS. During a cryptanalysis in 2012, this mechanism was found safe.[15]
Changing the recovery key is not possible without re-encrypting the File Vault volume.[3]
Validation[edit]
Users who use FileVault 2 in OS X 10.9 and above can validate their key correctly works after encryption by running sudo fdesetup validaterecovery in Terminal after encryption has finished. The key must be in form xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx and will return true if correct.[16]
Starting the OS with FileVault 2 without a user account[edit]
If a volume to be used for startup is erased and encrypted before clean installation of OS X 10.7.4 or 10.8:
Apple describes this type of approach as Disk Password—based DEK.[12]
See also[edit]References[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=FileVault&oldid=964582753'
FileVault is one of those Mac features that you know is there but are never really sure what it’s there for. Apple has never really made a big song and dance about how the feature protects your data or why you should bother with it, so we’re going to do it instead.
This won’t be a literal song and dance, unfortunately, (we don’t have the natural rhythm) but we will tell you all you need to know about FileVault, as well as how and why you should use it. But feel free to sing the words as you read them and dance along at the same time.
Okay, let’s get into it.
What is FileVault?
FileVault is macOS’s built-in disk encryption feature. It's designed to encrypt your Mac's hard drive and all of the files located on the drive using 128-bit AES encryption with a 256-bit key.
Once FileVault is enabled on your Mac, all existing data will be encrypted. From then on, any new and changed data will be automatically locked down and password protected on boot to prevent unauthorized access.
FileVault was originally introduced to Mac back in 2003 on OS X 10.3 Panther. But to say it wasn’t very good would be an understatement. It was terrible. The functionality was poor, the implementation was shoddy, and only the home directory could be encrypted.
Thankfully, 2003 was a long time ago and now, with FileVault 2, you can expect full-disk encryption and the ability to use the Find My Mac feature to wipe your drive remotely if ever your system falls into suspect hands.
Should I use FileVault?
Yes, is the short answer.
If you’re concerned about the privacy of your files and user data, and your computer contains information that shouldn’t be seen without authorized access, you should absolutely use FileVault disk encryption.
The feature is particularly good if you’re a MacBook user that regularly takes your laptop on the move where there’s a greater chance of it becoming lost or misplaced.
FileVault offers peace of mind and that counts for a lot. There are, however, reasons why you might not want to bother with the feature.
First of all, FileVault enforces a password. If you struggle to remember passwords (it’s well worth using a password manager if you do) or prefer using your Mac without one, you might consider FileVault to be more effort than it’s worth.
Secondly, FileVault encryption is backed into the CPU which can affect performance. If you own a newer SSD-equipped Mac you’re unlikely to notice the difference, but in older Macs with HDDs performance can take a significant hit — enough for you to consider using your computer without encryption.
How to check if FileVault is enabled?
In systems running OS X Yosemite 10.10 and newer, Apple encourages you to turn on FileVault 2 during setup. So, if you’re using a newer Mac, there’s every chance that your files are already being encrypted.
Here’s how to check:
Before you turn on FileVault, be aware that the initial encryption process can take hours. However, it does run in the background so you can continue using your Mac as normal, albeit not at peak levels of performance.
Also, FileVault encrypts the entire disk. Any additional users will need to be enabled so that they can unlock the disk by entering their password.
How to turn on FileVault disk encryption
Choosing a FileVault Recovery Key
The FileVault recovery key deserves special mention here. If you choose this option over linking your iCloud account, it’s critical that you make a note of the recovery key and keep it in a safe place that’s not on your hard drive. Losing the recovery key makes your data unrecoverable so it’s worth writing it down and storing it in a safe place, as well as entering it into a password manager.
How do I turn off FileVault?
Once your disk has been encrypted you can turn off FileVault at any time. You might decide to do this if you find that the feature is too resource-heavy or this particular level of security isn’t for you.
Disabling FileVault starts the process of decrypting all of your files. This runs in the background but, like encryption, is a lengthy process.
How do I keep online and offline activity private?
FileVault’s capabilities only extend as far as user data and file encryption. Other things you do on your Mac like web browsing, chatting via messaging apps, downloading software, and using files locally are not private.
Of course, in the event that your Mac is lost, for anyone to see your online and local activity they’d need to enter the admin password first. But if you share computer access and want to keep your activity private, the best option is to use an app like CleanMyMac X.
The latest edition of MacPaw’s leading utility tool comes with a Privacy feature that lets you wipe off all unwanted traces and any information that may compromise your privacy. All you need to do is choose a suitable period and let CleanMyMac X take care of the rest. While it’s possible to delete browsing history, remove downloads, and clear cookies manually, this tool lets you take care of everything at once so you don’t need to worry about it.
Protect your data, maintain your privacy
If there’s anything on your computer that you prefer to keep to yourself, you can safeguard your information in two simple ways:
Usb Flash Drive Encryption Mac Os X
1. Enable FileVault so that all of your user data and files are kept under lock and key.
2. Download CleanMyMac X to keep all online and local activity private.
Mac Os Encryption
In a world where computer viruses and data theft is rife, privacy and security should be your top priority. These tools will make sure your information is never compromised.
CleanMyMac X is the biggest and best Mac utility tool on the market, designed to clean, protect, and optimize your system for outstanding performance. Download the app today.
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