Administering filevault 2 on os x lion with the casper suite. Use filevault to encrypt the startup disk on your mac apple support. Whats in this guide this guide provides stepbystep instructions for administering filevault 2 on os x v10. Some of these changes were met with dismay by longtime mac users, but most apple customers were excited to see at least one new feature. When filevault is turned on, your mac always requires that you log in with your account password. First of all the user is presented with a 24 character recovery password see figure 2.
Did you know that os x has a powerful whole disk encryption feature built right in. The normal way youd enable filevault 2 on your mac os x lion install is by going to system preferences and enable it from there. If you have been using a mac for quite a while now, then youve probably encountered the term filevault. In os x lion, filevault now uses apples new corestorage volume manager to encrypt the. Video tutorial showing how to encrypt your mac os x startup diskhard drive with filevalut. Its fast and incredibly secure, using xtsaes 128 encryption to keep things far out of the reaches of prying eyes. I want to run filevault on an external 7200rpm hard drive inside a macally enclosure conneced to my imac via fw800. With filevault 2 having a number of drawbacks, a common question im seeing is how best to secure data on lion and mountain lion without using fv2. Open a new finder window and select the external drive you would like to encrypt from the panel on the left, under devices. How to restart a filevaultprotected mac remotely cnet. But to say it wasnt very good would be an understatement. Longtime readers of the rocket yard have probably heard us mention apples filevault encryption, which is a way to encrypt the startup disk on your mac. Fde encrypts all data on hard drives so when the device is off, sensitive data cannot be recovered by an attacker. This encrypts the entire os x startup volume and typically includes the home directory, abandoning the disk image approach.
Since its initial release in os x mountain lion 10. With filevault 2, your data is safe and secure even if your mac falls into the wrong hands. Learn how to create and deploy a filevault recovery key for mac computers in your company, school, or other institution if youre using filevault in mac os x snow leopard, you can upgrade to filevault 2 by upgrading to os x lion or later. Enable filevault setuptutorial for mac os x youtube. If you absolutely, positively dont ever want anyone to be able to access the files in your mac os x lion home folder, an application called filevault allows you to encrypt your entire home folder and its contents. With the release of yosemite, apple has continued to add functionality to fdesetup, a valuable commandline tool for enabling, administering and disabling apples filevault 2 encryption. Mac os x lion introduces the nextgeneration of filevault, apples builtin encryption technology. In lion, filevault protects your data with the latest governmentapproved encryption standard. You are not using boot camp a type of software that. Filevault is a disk encryption program in mac os x 10. Use filevault to get full disk encryption in mac os x. When filevault is turned on, your mac always requires that you log in. Now id like to show you how to protect your lioninstalled mac even further via lions firewall and filevault software, and explain when. That changed with filevault 2, which apple introduced with os x 10.
You can also prefer to format partitions with hfsx, a casesensitive variant of hfs plus intended for compatibility with unix software. Filevault 2 encrypts the entire drive on your mac, protecting your data with xtsaes 128 encryption. Ive been researching filevault 2 to make sure that i understand it before i enable it on my mac. Everything you need to know about filevault encryption friday, march 15th, 2019 author. And on mac systems with an apple t2 security chip, filevault 2 keys are created and protected by the secure enclave for even more security. How does mac os x lion filevault compare with pgp disk. It means that all mac users with a secure token are now automatically added as filevault users when activating filevault. Enable or disable filevault 2 encryption on a particular mac use a personal recovery key, an institutional recovery key, or. That being said, if you havent encrypted your computers using this inhouse software. Using xtsaes128 encryption with a 256bit key, it safeguards the information against unauthorized access on the startup disk. Mac os x lion and newer offer filevault 2, which is a significant redesign. You are strongly encouraged to back up your files before starting to encrypt. In my mental model of filevault 2, a tiny decryption program stored on the hard drive is loaded during the boot process.
Filevault is essentially apples version of bitlocker and is available on machines using os x lion or later. Filevault 2 is an encryption software built into mac os x. Filevault 2 encrypts your boot partition, but your mac still needs an unencrypted space to boot to and allow access to the unlock tools. Use lions filevault 2 to encrypt your macs internal drive apple latest mac operating system, os x 10.
Faculty and staff using macs that contain sensitive information, win, social security numbers, grades, financial or research information, etc. Encryption and decryption are performed on the fly. In this mac 101 article, well take a detailed look at filevault, how it works, things to watch out for when using it, and why. Filevault 2 by the way it works does not have those issues. Filevault 2 which wasnt referred to by apple with the numbering provides fulldisk encryption using xtsaes128 encryption with a 256bit key, able to keep away everyone who doesnt have the password to unlock the content stored on your macs startup disk. That will only work on your boot drive though, and only if you have the recoverypartition present on your boot drive as. Filevault 2 is designed to encrypt your hard drive. Filevault is a piece of mac encryption software for users of os x 10. Click, then enter an administrator name and password. Protecting files with filevault in mac os x lion dummies. How and why to use filevault disk encryption on mac macpaw. Top 7 best encryption software for mac 2020 updated. So, what does recovery hd have to do with filevault 2.
Apples filevault 2 software keeps your data secure by encrypting the entire hard drive. In lion, you flip a switch discussed below and your. This program asks the user for the key and uses it to begin decrypting the drive and start the os. How and why to enable filevault encryption on your mac. Filevault 2 encrypts the entire disk hard disk or ssd, it doesnt matter, so this removes a big performance impact that filevault 1 had in creating and maintaining an encrypted. In mac os x lion, after filevault 2 is enabled, a series of events take place. Everything you need to know about filevault encryption. Encrypt external drives with mac os x lions filevault 2. Why you should encrypt your computer with filevault 2. Apples filevault encryption program was initially introduced with os x 10.
It is a method of using encryption with volumes on mac computers. For casual users, this is just a background application you can make do, while for hardcore users, their life and privacy highly depended on it. While reading macworlds complete guide to filevault 2 in lion, i encountered an unexpected caveat emphasis mine its probably worth mentioning that someone who steals a filevaultenabled mac can never shut down or restart the machine without losing access to the booted machines startup drive. After upgrading os x, open filevault preferences and follow the onscreen instructions to upgrade filevault. This password can be used to access the encrypted volume even if the user password is lost. Apple filevault 2 encryption cracked, but dont panic. Filevault was originally introduced to mac back in 2003 on os x 10. Running filevault on an external hard dri apple community. Does turning on filevault reduce the performance of your mac. Filevault is an amazing disk level encryption feature that comes with mac os x. If youre looking for ways to protect sensitive business and personal data, encryption with apples filevault might be the way to go.
Lions filevault 2 can be used to protect your data by encrypting your macs hard drive. Version 2 expands encryption from the users home directory to the entire disk. And unfortunately a lot of the posts arent clear about which version of filevault they are talking about. Ensure that the computer meets the requirements for using filevault 2. Use lions filevault 2 to encrypt your macs internal. Also, a lot of issues that people have posted about with filevault are for the original filevault that just encrypted the home directory. It encrypts the entire drive on your mac making your data inaccessible to anyone without the password or encryption key. Thankfully, the feature got some significant improvements with the release of macos x lion. For those unfamiliar, this builtin encryption feature is designed to encrypt macs hard drive along with all the stored files.
Interested in using filevault 2, but dont know where to start. This tool gives mac administrators the following commandline abilities. Theres a number of tricks on offer, from making transparent folders, excluding folders from spotlight, or using terminal to make them invisible or hidden. Somebody asked me about whether i encrypt any of my external drives. Filevault 2 using disk encryption with mac os x lifewire. Use filevault to fully secure your hard drive or solid state drive on your mac by encrypting your operating system in addition to your documents. Use filevault to encrypt the startup disk on your mac. Rightclick or twofinger click, or controlclick on this disk in order to bring up a contextual menu, and then select encrypt external drive name. And recently, apple added a secure token on top of filevault. Securing mac os x lion using firewall and filevault 2. Is it possible to run filevault on an external hard drive.
Administering filevault 2 on os x mountain lion with the. Expert karen scarfone examines apple filevault 2 full disk encryption software, which is bundled with mac os x, to see how its capabilities stack up against other fde products. Apple filevault 2 is a capability built into certain versions of the mac os x operating system os that provides full disk encryption fde capabilities for desktop and laptop hard drives. The introduction of secure token on top of filevault. Should you use filevault disk encryption on macos, yes or. Although sharing the same name, filevault 2 is an entirely different scheme than its predecessor. In lion, you flip a switch discussed below and your entire startup drive is converted into an.
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