[G4] Encrypted Hard Disk

[perry at cynic.org]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 03:15:41AM -0500, Michael Ron wrote:
> I keep client material on separate, external hard drives.  One contains 
> sensitive data. Do you know of a way to keep this disk encrypted except 
> when we're using it? Is there a program I can use. Can't use OSX built 
> in security since it's for the Home folder.

Reformat (erase) the harddrive and fill it with an encrypted disk image
(you can make it almost as big as the disk if you like). You can put the
passphrase into your keychain if you like (or not). You can make an alias
to the image somewhere convenient and double-click it to mount. Unmount
the image disk to protect the image again. There's all kinds of strategies
on how to manage this best, depending on how you use the disk.

"Ordinary" disk image files do not suffer from the reported File Vault
problems; they are quite safe. Do note that there is absolutely no
back door to encrypted disk images; if you lose the passphrase, you have
lost everything in the image forever (unless there's a copy elsewhere).

Cheers
  -- perry