Even though we have modern messaging technologies like Apple’s Messages that default to encrypted communications, we still primarily use e-mail, even for sensitive business transactions. If you have several partners that you would like to communicate privately with, then while you can resort to an encrypted collaboration platform, you can also do so via classic e-mail, with only a few steps taken for each person. Continue reading
Tag Archives: encryption
Fix double login prompts on your Mac
When booting your Mac you should only need to supply your username and password once in order to log in. However, there may be times upon cold-booting your Mac where you enter your password at the login prompt, but after the system shows a gray boot screen as expected, it displays your login window again. This problem does not affect the functionality of your Mac, and is only a minor hiccup in how FileVault disk encryption is set up on your system. Continue reading
Fix your Mac stuck on encrypting with FileVault
Apple’s FileVault disk encryption option in OS X is a security feature that is highly recommended, especially for portable systems that can be easily stolen. The feature is easy to set up in the Security system preferences, after which the system should take up to a few hours to encrypt the drive, depending on the size and type of drive being used. This should be relatively straightforward; however, in some cases the encryption may get stuck and show a progress bar that will not advance, even after days of waiting. Continue reading
How to encrypt your Time Machine backups
When you enable FileVault on your Mac, you in effect prevent anyone from accessing your data without your password. Without encryption, someone can remove your Mac’s hard drive or boot to an alternative mode such as Target Disk mode and then access your data from another system; however, with encryption these efforts will be fruitless since your data is encrypted. This may be desired, but if you back up your Mac, then unless your backups are also encrypted you might undermine the purpose of using FileVault in the first place. Continue reading
How to secure individual private files in OS X
Your account in OS X should be relatively secure, and provided you store your files within the structure of your account (ie, the Documents, Music, Movies, and Photos folders in your home directory), then other users on your system will not be able to access your documents. However, this security has its limits, and may break down for several reasons, especially if you transfer documents from your Mac to other systems, or to online services which you access from other systems: Continue reading
How to secure and lock down your Mac
There are numerous ways that a thief can get into your Mac, including booting your system to another hard drive to bypass the security of the built-in operating system and access any file on disk, or simply booting to the OS X Recovery partition and using the password reset tools to change the password of an account on the system. While keychain information and other secured documents will be safe from such approaches, other non-secured files will still be accessible. Continue reading
Tips and tricks for securing your Mac
Securing your Mac and the online services you use revolves around layering your security options, so not only do you have your computing content secured by a proper password, but it is also properly packaged for security. In addition, how you configure your Mac can greatly affect how secure it is.
There are several easy approaches you can follow to ensure your Mac is as secure as possible, especially Continue reading
Built-in options for encrypting data on your Mac
Data encryption is an important consideration if you keep sensitive or otherwise private documents on your Mac. While data encryption is not always necessary, such as for servers that can be physically secured in a closet, if a system can be stolen or opened so the drives can be removed, encryption is perhaps the only way to ensure your data is secure. Continue reading