Time Machine PW protect? This possible?

[onoble]

I searched the forum on this, and there wasn't a good solution.

Basically I use an external drive for my time machine backups, the problem is that the backups aren't password protected so anyone with physical possession of the external drive can get at my data.

Is there a way to PW protect the external backups?
Assuming I can... consider that if my mac ever crashed and my data was lost, could I still use my PW protected backups to restore? Or put on a new machine?

Thanks all!

 

[pit29]

I also searched the forum and found the post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/434960/

I did it that way and did not have any problems...

 

[pit29]

Oh, and make sure you read that thread to the end!

 

[onoble]

thanks, but I'd rather not 'hack' it.

Is there a simple way that apple supports?

 

[angelwatt]

Time Machine is very limited in terms of configuration options. One thing to try, encrypt a destination HD with TrueCrypt, then choose that encrypted volume for TM to backup to. I don't use TM so not sure if it allows you to do this.

 

[jc1350]

It's expensive (and I use it for other reasons), but I use the whole-disk encryption in PGP Desktop Professional. No problems.

Perhaps Truecrypt would work, but I never attempted that for Time Machine. Since I use PGP, Truecrypt is just a toy for me.

 

[tdmac]

If you are looking for protection if someone takes the physical drive, many of the newer backup drives like from WD and others have drive lock. So if the firewire cable is pulled or the drive is powered off it will autolock and be encrypted.

 

[Schtibbie]

If you are looking for protection if someone takes the physical drive, many of the newer backup drives like from WD and others have drive lock. So if the firewire cable is pulled or the drive is powered off it will autolock and be encrypted.

Well, I have a Maxtor drive with something they call "drivelock" or somesuch, and I'm pretty sure that just locks the firmware of the drive so it won't mount without providing a password. That is NOT the same as actual encryption of the contents on the disk.

Anyway, what I do currently is I run filevault. Time machine backs up the encrypted files in encrypted form, so it's secure. I also turn on encrypted virtual memory and disable sleep images via a 3rd party tool. But I like to go overboard and cover all bases.