The cost of encryption?
Posted in Tech by Dan at 8:45 pm
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I am a MacBook Pro user (More on that later next week) and an insane backup junkie, but as far as protection of my data it comes to a tight grip on my bag and the ability to scream *really* loud.
With all the sensitive information resides on my laptop, which never leaves my side, I feel stupid letting it sit on the drive unencrypted. So what to do? I have read many articles that both praise and slam various forms of encryption. So, what do you do to protect your data? What do you use to encrypt? Why do you choose not to? Start the discussion!
I tried out FileVault on my MBP, but it made everything a crapload slower, and you have no idea how annoying it is to have to wait 20 minutes to log out because of deleting free space.
It really took that big of a hit on a MBP? I thought the processor could take the encryption load like a champ
What about PGP?
My MacBook is with FileVault on and works fine, logging in and out is normal. Better protected and safe.
does 10.5 do anything to upgrade encryption?
Richard is right about the logout. Filevault create one giant contiguous file for everything in your home ~ directory. When you log out, it cleans up unused space so you have more room on your drive.
I use far too much room on my drive. I am hunting weekly for stuff to archive. I don’t want to have to reboot all the time because filevault keeps encroaching on my drive limits.
Also to even enable filevault you need as much space available as you are currently using for your home directory. I’d have to offload all my files, then turn on filevault, then copy everything back.
When I did use filevault I did not notice a speed difference. On the other hand, as crashworthy as these Macs are, and with journaling, they can lose data. Losing any data in filevault turns your home directory into sludge. One file remember. If it won’t checksum, it is toast. Filevault becomes the infamous Vilefault.
You might want to keep your sensitive data on one home directory that does not have admin rights. Filevault it and back up daily. Use your other account for less sensitive stuff. You can also encrypt your virtual memory.
I’m hoping Leopard has a more fine-tuned encryption method, perhaps a directory area I can encrypt rather than my home space for instance. I won’t count on it though. Apple likes to keep things simple. On/off, that sort of thing.
I don’t use any encryption on most of my stuff to be completely honest… I encrypt a lot of my conversations via adium if it’s regarding sensitive information and I’ll encrypt/password sensitive archive files like .zip and such… realistically I probably should be more concerned about this considering one of my clients just had their notebook stolen not even 2 weeks ago… on that notebook included admin passwords stored in their browser password stuff and a few other important ones to key features of their e-commerce site. I hate them immediately call and change all of their passwords on the server via the hosting service within minutes of the theft…
I use tinfoil helmets,worked out well so far.
Encrypted disk images are enough for me. Most of my content that I could or would consider sensitive to prying eyes is already locked away in an encrypted disk that I usually carry in a small drive.
Personally, from my working at an Service Provider, I’ve found FileVault to be a bad thing in the wrong hands. Apple have left no-back doors, so make sure you have some sort of backup somewhere and make sure you don’t forget your password.
Don’t use it unless you’re absolutely sure of what you’re doing.
Personally, I have the login passwords, and I use Deskshade to lock my computer when I’m away from it. I’m not a security junkie as I don’t see a need for it.
With OS X I am not using encryption yet.
But with Windows (office) I am a proud user of TrueCrypt (OpenSource) which has a very nice GUI and works like charm. We use it on every Laptop, external harddrive, USB-stick and so on. A clearly recommendation to TrueCrypt!
TrueCrypt is delevoped with and for Windows but there is also a CLI-version for linux and AFAIR OS X. I hope, someone is writing the nice Windows-GUI for OS X too!
I use FileVault on my MBP. I don’t notice any speed difference other than when you reboot…on TC’s site, they said that they are working on a os x gui, but who knows when that will be done. I put most sensitive things in an encrypted sparse image though. That seems to work well.
PGP Desktop 9.5 if you want to shell out cash, if not TrueCrypt works about as well and is free.
I used to use Filvault …. till I crashed my hard drive … what was the cause … FileVault. DO NOT USE FILEVAULT … unless you don’t care about your data. 10.5 does have upgraded encryption tools and they are way better then what is offered in 10.4. If you want to encrypt your drive wait for 10.5.
I do what DEREK does … encrypted DMGs easy to backup and remains encrypted when backed up. :)
I used FileVault until it killed most my my ~/Library
Thinking my MBP froze while shutting down, I held down the power button for 5 seconds and forced the shut down. When I started up, some of my startup programs wouldn’t run, and for the ones that did, it was as if I’d started them for the first time.
Apparently, the MBP hadn’t frozen, but was just writing data to the encrypted file (which it should be doing realtime, if FileVault were a decent system). It was in the process of syncing my ~/Library folder, so, when I booted back up, the folder existed within the encrypted file, but without proper attributes or contents. I couldn’t delete or write to the folder.
AppleCare couldn’t help me (they said to make a new account…). I eventually learned that I could mount the encrypted file from another account, so I did that and repaired the file with Drive Utility.
So, long story short, don’t use FileVault.
Personally, I would recommend against File Vault, as encrypting the entire home directory strikes me as overkill. I think that a better solution would be to keep the things you are worried about in an encrypted disk image.
You can also set Mac OS X to encrypt its swap files.