How do you hide/protect your most sensitive materials?

[About2SwitchOvr]

In my case, it would be a couple of doc and excel files.
I have a 20" mac running OSX, 768 megs @ 1.25 gigs.

I want to either hide them, or password protect them. Hide, I guess I can bury them deep into some sub-folders, but is there a way to make them invisible?

THANKS!

[jeremy.king]

use FileVault (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/filevault/)

[macrlz9]

what i always do is i make a new disk image with disk utility, password protect it, and throw all of my files on it! i put the disk image in my documents folder and i have a shortcut in the side bar so all i have to do is click on the "personal stuff" icon in the side bar, enter my password, then a disk image appears with all myt stuff in it!

[jsw]

what i always do is i make a new disk image with disk utility, password protect it, and throw all of my files on it! i put the disk image in my documents folder and i have a shortcut in the side bar so all i have to do is click on the "personal stuff" icon in the side bar, enter my password, then a disk image appears with all myt stuff in it!

Agreed! This is the best way to protect your, er, sensitive files. ;)

To be specific:


Open Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility.
Click the "New Image" icon in the toolbar (or use Images->New...->Blank Image)
Fill in "Save as:" field with a name.
Select an appropriate size
Set the excryption to AES-128
Keep the format as "read/write disk image"
Click "Create"
You'll be prompted for a password - enter one
Very important: Unselect "Remember password (add to Keychain)" before clicking OK to set the password.


This creates the password-protected .dmg file. Double-click it to open it (supply the password, and don't opt to store it in your keychain, or else anyone in your account can open it). It then looks like a mounted disk image - drag things into/out of it. Eject it to return it to it's password-protected state.

[About2SwitchOvr]

Agreed! This is the best way to protect your, er, sensitive files. ;)

To be specific:


Open Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility.
Click the "New Image" icon in the toolbar (or use Images->New...->Blank Image)
Fill in "Save as:" field with a name.
Select an appropriate size
Set the excryption to AES-128
Keep the format as "read/write disk image"
Click "Create"
You'll be promted for a password - enter one
Very important:Unselect "Remember password (add to Keychain)" [i]before[i] clicking OK to set the password.


This creates the password-protected .dmg file. Double-click it to open it (supply the password, and don't opt to store it in your keychain, or else anyone in your account can open it). It then looks like a mounted disk image - drag things into/out of it. Eject it to return it to it's password-protected state.

Great, thanks for the information.
I'm going to try this now :-)

[7on]

Yeah, I do use the disk utility method too. What is niftier is to change the icon for the disk image into a folder icon. Then someone just browsing through will also just over look it as an empty folder (in columns view empty folders lack the arrow on the left and a sparsedisk image with it's icon changed will appear to be just that).

[mikeyredk]

Yeah, I do use the disk utility method too. What is niftier is to change the icon for the disk image into a folder icon. Then someone just browsing through will also just over look it as an empty folder (in columns view empty folders lack the arrow on the left and a sparsedisk image with it's icon changed will appear to be just that).

but don't most people throw out empty folders?

[iLikeMyiMac]

I hide my secret files under my mattress where nobody will every look for them. ;)

[rendezvouscp]

I usually just password protect in Word. Under the preferences, you can password protect documents. Also, for any PDF's, I run them through Acrobat and make a protected PDF. It's really cool. BTW, I've forgotten the password to some Word documents before (but I had the password in a file in my Keychain), and tried to open the documents with everything I could on my Mac. Nothing was shown in the document, work or password. Very cool.
–Chase

[sushi]

I usually just password protect in Word. Under the preferences, you can password protect documents. Also, for any PDF's, I run them through Acrobat and make a protected PDF. It's really cool. BTW, I've forgotten the password to some Word documents before (but I had the password in a file in my Keychain), and tried to open the documents with everything I could on my Mac. Nothing was shown in the document, work or password. Very cool.
–Chase
Uh, password protected Word files are fairly easy to break (to see the content inside the document).

Sushi

[michaelrjohnson]

I use LameSecure (http://extraneous.us/software/LameSecure/About.html). It suits my needs perfectly, and sounds like it should suit yours too. It's Freeware, however, it's currently not available for download from their site. I can send you a copy via email later on today. Just contact me.

[ethernet76]

In OS 9 resedit was a nice tool for making files invisible.

Otherwise all my files are stored in an invisible file on my iPod.

I don't like passwording because they're a hassle.

However, if my iPod were stolen or broken, I'm SOL.

The real question is where do you hide your porn so people don't find it?

Also, I'm assuming you could modify permissions on folders and set them to nobody or root so you'd have to be a superuser to access them.

[m.r.m.]

The real question is where do you hide your porn so people don't find it?

everybody was being so james bond about it, but you had to be so direct, didn´t you! :eek: :D

[couchpotatoe]

You can also make the disk image you create invisible using terminal. all you have to do is rename it with a period in fornt of the name. For example, to change a file in your home folder named blah, you would go to terminal and type:

mv "blah" ".blah"

then when you wanted to make it visible again, you would type

mv ".blah" "blah"

invisible unless you know it's there.

[rendezvouscp]

Uh, password protected Word files are fairly easy to break (to see the content inside the document).

Sushi

How? I'd like to try to break into my own documents.
–Chase

[railthinner]

Thanks for the thread and great answers. Something I've wondered myself for a while and I'll be whipping out disk utility when I get home.

[avalys]

How? I'd like to try to break into my own documents.
–Chase
There are dozens of utilities on the web that will do this. Try Googling "word password recovery."

[krimson]

i put my smaller files in a SIT, then put that on a password protected Zip disk, then put that in my safe.

[michaelrjohnson]

The real question is where do you hide your porn so people don't find it?


It may not *necessarily* be for pornography. In my case, I recently got a Laptop (12" PB). Now that I carry it with me, many, *many* more people use my computer. While I have no problem with them using the apps, I dont' want them in my files, be it papers, letters, etc. By protecting a few select folders, I dont' have to stop what I'm doing (and log in to a guest account) to dazzle another passerby.

[jacobj]

Man... what have you guys got to hide? :eek:

[duy802]

Yeah, I do use the disk utility method too. What is niftier is to change the icon for the disk image into a folder icon. Then someone just browsing through will also just over look it as an empty folder (in columns view empty folders lack the arrow on the left and a sparsedisk image with it's icon changed will appear to be just that).

Great idea. How do you change the disk image into a folder icon? Thanks!

[jsw]

Great idea. How do you change the disk image into a folder icon? Thanks!

Easy. Click on the disk image and "Get Info" (command-I). Click on a folder - any folder - and do the same. Click on the folder icon within the info window and copy with command-C. click on the disk image icon in its info window and paste (command-v). Done!

[jsw]

These are the icons I'm talking about. Click on the folder one, copy it, then click on the .dmg icon, and paste.

[jsw]

Another minor hint: rename the .dmg file to remove the ".dmg" part. OS X will still know how to open it, and it won't be so obvious.

[duy802]

Easy. Click on the disk image and "Get Info" (command-I). Click on a folder - any folder - and do the same. Click on the folder icon within the info window and copy with command-C. click on the disk image icon in its info window and paste (command-v). Done!

Just did it. Thanks a bunch! I've been using a Mac for almost a year now and am constantly astonished at just how elegant and simple everything is!!

[jsw]

Just did it. Thanks a bunch! I've been using a Mac for almost a year now and am constantly astonished at just how elegant and simple everything is!!

While it has its issues, for the most part OS X tends to do things in an easier way that you'd expect.

I remember trying to figure out how in God's name I could connect to my PC when I first got the Mac. Spent forever trudging through the Applications folder, the Utilities folder, the System Preferences, etc. Turns out it's right there in the Finder under "Go". Command-K. It's that easy. So many other things have been like that for me too. Seems like I'm always learning a new shortcut. What sets it apart from Windows, to me, is that the shortcuts make sense so I remember them easily once I learn them.

[Dr. Dastardly]

Does anyone use file vault? Thats what its there for.

[jsw]

Well, it doesn't protect you if you've logged in already, and there are risks involved - losing the password, etc., that some people might not want to take with their entire home folder. Also, if you've got a password-protected screen saver up, any admin can log in with their name/password and get into your account, FileVault or not.

Using the password-protected disk image lets you keep some stuff tucked away with a separate password.

I'm not arguing against FileVault. Just saying that this alternative might be better for some people and some cases.

[Awimoway]

Does anyone use file vault? Thats what its there for.

I've never trusted it because of the file-loss issues it had when Panther was first released. It's probably safe and functional now, but I'd hate to find out I'm wrong the hard way.

[spookykids]

I also never liked that file-vault took ages to complete and it increased quite alot in size when finished. Wasnt worth it it IMO.

[BornAgainMac]

use FileVault (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/filevault/)

Create a separate account and use FileVault for those secret files. For performance reasons, use your regular account for iTunes, iMovie files, iPhoto.

[yippy]

Don't forget about fast user switching. You were conserned about logging out and into a guest account. Fast user switching makes that easy, you don't log out but you still need a password to get back to your account. Just a thought.

[About2SwitchOvr]

I've never trusted it because of the file-loss issues it had when Panther was first released. It's probably safe and functional now, but I'd hate to find out I'm wrong the hard way.


I appreciate all the feedback and advice. :-)

I think the disk utility method, changing the icon, route suits me the best.
The real reason is that my gf is moving in with me, in about 2 weeks :eek: , and I gotta hide the videos I made with my ex!!! :p (there is no way, that I'm trashing those)

I owe u guys one!

Peace!