I have lots of files that contain sensitive data. Like my recipe for beef and macaroni. Not to mention B+ school papers, Dan and Derik’s credit card and social security numbers, a list of my favorite websites, the truth about the moon landing…and MacUser posts that were never published.
You can see why even FileVault is insufficient for my needs.
Thankfully, the popular volume creation-and-encryption software TrueCrypt has come to the Mac with version 5.0. And it works great: Use it to create a new “volume,” give it a space allotment, choose an encryption algorithm, and set a password.
It’ll create a file in a location of your choosing; then you can use TrueCrypt to select and mount that volume. Type in your password and blammo: it appears on the desktop, and you can add and delete files as if it were a folder. When you’re done, dismount, and all your files are safely tucked behind a digital wall of encrypted gibberish.
You can even encrypt an entire disk, or create a hidden volume for “plausible deniability.” Check out the TrueCrypt website for more information, the dirty details behind the encryption process, and other stuff I don’t quite understand.
Now that recipe will never fall into the wrong hands.
Oh, crap. What was my password?
[via LifeHacker]
Why not just use an encrypted disk volume? That's free.
TrueCrypt is also free. It's also a great volume management app, has a lot more features and encryption options.
It's also cross platform, which means I can now bring stuff home on a thumb drive so I can work on my Mac, instead of having to carry my 23 lb Dell laptop back and forth (it's not really 23 lb, it just feels that way after 45 minutes on the BART) ... you know, so if I lose my thumb drive I don't give away any company secrets.
BTW, don't tell my boss I'll be doing that.
TrueCrypt is pretty awesome. You can create an encrypted volume, then create a hidden one inside that as a decoy, then another hidden one inside that that contains the actual data. Very sneaky.
What about Knox?
I installed TrueCrypt on my laptop and ran some benchmark tests.
Benchmark Results:
http://www.full-disk-encryption.net/wiki/index.php/TrueCrypt#Benchmarks
Pros:
1) Easy to use product. Simple clean interface. Very user-friendly!
2) Free and Open Source
3) Multiple Encryption and Hashing algorithm available.
Cons:
1) Buffered Read and Buffered Transfer Rate was almost halved after TrueCrypt FDE was enabled :-(.
2) Access Time for large file (250+MB) increased by 11%.
3) The initial encryption of the 120 GB HDD took 2 hours.