[NeXTLoop]

So, it's been 3 1/2 months and two systems updates since the release of Panther. We've all heard the horror stories surrounding FileVault. The question is, have any of these system and security updates fixed the problems once and for all? Are any of you using FileVault without any problems?

[Saddam H.]

I use it without problems, and did from the beginning.

Some of panther's menubar settings don't stick--bluetooth will sometimes not be there, and lately the date & time will be gone, too, but I had those issues even when FV wasn't on.

[neutrino23]

Filevault works for me.

I recently sent in my 15" Al PB for repair of white spots on the screen. Before sending it in I turned on FV. It wouldn't go at first because there wasn't enough free space to do the encryptions. I moved a few things off my HD and deleted them then it worked fine. I've kept it on since the repair and have had no problems.

Using FV this way made me feel more secure that my data was safe in case the machine was lost or stolen during shipping.

The one downside is that it takes more time to move large files (multi-GBs) on or off your drive.

Another side effect is that your home directory now behaves as a separate drive. Previously you could move a file from some other location to your home directory. Now if you try dragging an item that way the finder doesn't move it but creates a copy instead.

Overall, I'm willing to pay the slight amount of overhead for the security of keeping my data safe.

With FV, if someone gains physical access to your computer they can use an install disk to assign a new password to your account. That password will let them login but it won't give them access to your encrypted data. Only the original password (or the master password) will unlock your data.

[NeXTLoop]

Originally posted by neutrino23:
Filevault works for me.

So no problems at all? How long have you been using it? During that time, have you allowed FV to reclaim disk space? Have you noticed any slowdowns with any of your applications, aside from the file moving performance you already mentioned?

[fulmer]

Originally posted by neutrino23:
The one downside is that it takes more time to move large files (multi-GBs) on or off your drive.

Another side effect is that your home directory now behaves as a separate drive. Previously you could move a file from some other location to your home directory. Now if you try dragging an item that way the finder doesn't move it but creates a copy instead.

That does get annoying sometimes. However, one thing I do is keep a lot of the multimedia stuff outside of my home folder, including music and the iTunes folder. Basically anything of moderate or large size that is NOT sensitive or personal info is kept outside the home folder.

[JKT]

To move, rather than duplicate, a file from one volume to another, command-drag it. Been a Mac-thing since I can remember.

[darrick]

i've always heard that using file vault breaks applescripts because filevault changes filepaths in one's home directory and the scripts cannot find things. is this true?

[Big Mac]

You know, when I first heard about FileVault, I had a totally different conception of it than what it turned out to be. The functionality that is present in Panther as is seems wasteful, costly and perilous. I originally pictured a glorified encrypted disk image that sat on the desktop with a nice vault icon. The user could place files in there and then issue a menu command to lock it with some sort of animated flourish. That would have made a great deal more sense, and it wouldn't have needlessly subjected users to possible data loss.

[darrick]

isn't it just a fancy encrypted sparse disk image?

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by Big Mac:
You know, when I first heard about FileVault, I had a totally different conception of it than what it turned out to be. The functionality that is present in Panther as is seems wasteful, costly and perilous. I originally pictured a glorified encrypted disk image that sat on the desktop with a nice vault icon. The user could place files in there and then issue a menu command to lock it with some sort of animated flourish. That would have made a great deal more sense, and it wouldn't have needlessly subjected users to possible data loss.

You can just do this with any old encrypted disk image. The nice thing about FileVault is that will protect your entire Home directory, not just the files you specifically place in the "vault." If you want something that works like that, just use Disk Utility to make an encrypted password protected disk image, then mount and unmount as you wish.

Anytime you encrypt data, on any platform, you risk data loss due to HD corruption. If you could easily recover encrypted data from corruption, it wouldn't be too secure, would it? Encrypted NTFS on Windows is the same way....

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by NeXTLoop:
So no problems at all? How long have you been using it? During that time, have you allowed FV to reclaim disk space? Have you noticed any slowdowns with any of your applications, aside from the file moving performance you already mentioned?

I use FileVault on my 600MHz G3 iBook and don't have a problem. The machine isn't that fast anyway, but I haven't noticed a significant slow down. Granted, I'm not manipulating big files on it; its just for occasional mobile computing, but it works just fine for me.

And I don't worry that someone will steal the iBook and gain access to emails, addresses, browser cookies which may contain credit card numbers or bank account numbers, etc. The machine also frequently contains some protected patient medical information (I'm an academic physician) that may pertain to active research projects, so I'm satisfied that this info is secure as well.

I've also chosen good alpha-numeric passwords that would make any geek proud, disabled automatic logins, firewalled all ports, turned all services off, use wireless WPA and VPNs where available, and have enabled the Open Firmware lock so a thief can't boot off CD or into FireWire disk mode easily. The machine is as secure as humanly possible for a laptop computer.

[And in case anyone is concerned about HIPPA regulations... since the data is encrypted and password-protected, it meets HIPPA standards - I checked. Audit trails are not necessary since I'm the only one who as an account on the machine]

I plan on eventually activating FileVault on my desktop G5 as well, in case anyone attempts to steal that machine. However, since daily backups are written to a FireWire hard drive, I'll have to first experiment with backing up into a mounted encrypted disk image - to secure the backup from being physically stolen and accessed as well - before I even bother.