OpenPGP was originally derived from the PGP software, created by Phil Zimmermann. Although OpenPGP’s main purpose is end-to-end encrypted email communication, it is also utilized for encrypted messaging and other use cases such as password managers. OpenPGP is available for all major platforms, such as Windows, Mac OS, GNU/Linux, Android,. Encrypto is a free, easy-to-use app that lets you encrypt files with AES-256 encryption and then send them to friends or coworkers. It works on both Mac and Windows, so you can send encrypted files without worrying whether the other person can open it or not. Take any file or folder and add AES-256 encryption to it.
If you have a portable or external hard drive that contains a lot of personal or valuable information, it is vital that you make its contents secure. An external hard drive is an excellent way to back up your data, but it also risks becoming lost or stolen. If this happens, thieves will have access to your sensitive information.
In this guide, we explain how to encrypt an external hard drive so your data remains private no matter what happens.
What kind of data must you encrypt?
Below we have outlined the types of data that it is essential to encrypt on a USB peripheral such as a USB dongle or external hard drive:
- Personal documents and information (passport scans, bills, photos, etc)
- Financial reports and data
- Intellectual property
- Consumer information that must be protected for compliance purposes
- Research and development info
- Confidential information (journalists, lawyers, etc)
How to encrypt an external hard drive
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Lastly, click on the File Vault tab. Step 3: Here you have to click the option of 'Turn on the File Vault'. Step 4: Enter a strong password to complete the process of encryption to encrypt mac hard drive. You can encrypt your entire hard drive, encrypt an external drive, or just create an encrypted container for your most important files. Best Encryption Software for Mac. Now let’s take the direction of our discussion towards Mac, Apple’s prolific desktop OS that certainly isn’t invulnerable to hacking threat. Here are a few available options to ensure the security of your data on it. Mac users should go with Concealer encryption software. MEO Free File Encryption for Mac allows users to password-protect files and send encrypted e-mails, all in a basic, easy-to-understand package. With the rise in security threats, the program's.
Below we will explain how to encrypt an external hard drive both on Windows and Mac. Each Operating System has native solutions for encrypting files and folders. In this guide, we will explain how to use those native tools – and reliable third-party solutions – to encrypt your data.
Encrypt an external hard drive on Windows
If you want to encrypt an external hard drive on Windows Vista or later, the best method is to use Microsoft's native encryption tool BitLocker.
BitLocker is available on many Windows computers, so it won't cost you a dime to use. The only caveat is that BitLocker is only available on professional editions of Windows, which means that home users are out of luck.
If you have a professional edition of Windows 7, 8, or 10, you can follow the steps below to use BitLocker to encrypt your portable drive.
How to encrypt an external drive with BitLocker
- Connect your external hard drive to your Windows PC via the USB port.
- Open Windows Explorer and locate your external drive.
- Right-click the target drive and select Turn on BitLocker.
- Click on Enter a Password.
- Enter a secure password and make a note of that password somewhere safe.
- Now select How to Enable Your Recovery Key. You will use this code to access your drive if you lose your password. You can save it on your hard drive, save it as a file to a USB drive, save the key to your Microsoft account online, or print it.
- Choose Encrypt Entire Drive. This option also encrypts files that have been marked for deletion, which improves your security.
- Unless you require your external drive to be compatible with older Windows machines, select New Encryption Mode.
- Click Start Encrypting.
If you don't have BitLocker scroll down to find out how to use a third-party encryption tool instead.
Encrypt an external hard drive on Mac
If you want to encrypt an external hard drive on a Mac, you can do so by using the native FileVault 2 application. To encrypt an external hard drive or USB dongle with FileVault follow the steps below.
Please bear in mind that to encrypt a USB drive using FileVault you will need to format it first. Thus, you should remove all the data and back it up elsewhere before encrypting the drive so that you can add the data back to the drive after you have created the encrypted volume.
- Connect your external hard drive to your Mac via the USB port.
- Select the drive from your desktop, right-click, and select Encrypt
- Enter a strong password into the fields provided (you must enter it twice)
- Create a password hint only you will understand. It is vital that the hint does not make the password obvious.
- Click Encrypt disk.
- You can now place your files back onto the encrypted drive, and you will require the password each and every time you mount the drive to access its contents.
Encrypt an external hard drive using a third-party tool (Windows or Mac)
If you haven't got a professional edition of Windows, you can still encrypt your external hard drive. There are many third-party tools available on the market that will easily permit you to encrypt your portable drives.
Below we have explained how to encrypt an external drive using a third party tool called VeraCrypt. VeraCrypt is available on both Windows and Mac, which means you can use it to encrypt an extrenal hard drive on both Operating Systems.
- Before you can begin, you must download an application for encrypting your hard drive. We recommend VeraCrypt but you can opt to use any encryption program that you prefer.
- Connect your external hard drive to your computer via the USB port.
- Backup all the data from your external hard drive to ensure it is safe. (If something goes wrong – or you make a mistake – you could format the drive and lose all your data. For this reason, it is recommended that you back up all your data to a cloud backup service first.
- Launch the encryption program and select Create Volume. You will now get three encryption options:
- Create encrypted file container
- Create a non-system partition/drive
- Create a system partition/drive
- You are encrypting an external hard drive so select non-system partition/drive
- Depending on which encryption program you use, you may now be asked to select the type of volume you want to create. You will be given the option to pick either standard or hidden volume. For most use cases, a standard volume is fine.
- Now it is time to select the drive. Choose the external hard drive from the list of drives. (Remember disks that you will need to pick a partition if your external hard drive is partitioned.)
- Once you have selected the drive you want to encrypt and checked that the file path is correct, click Next.
- Depending on the program you use, you will now be asked to pick how you want to encrypt the drive. You can either format the drive and start all over again (your current data will be lost); or you can encrypt the data that is already on the drive:
- Create encrypted volume and format it
- Encrypt drive in place
- If you want to encrypt your external drive and keep all the data that is on it, you must select Encrypt drive (or partition) in place.
- Depending on what program you use, you will now be asked to select which encryption algorithm to use. We recommend using the default settings, as these are secure. If you aren't sure what to select, check with the service you are using.
- If you encrypting an entire hard disk, you may now be served a message that shows you the size of the hard drive. Accept and click Next.
- You will now be asked to provide the password for decrypting your drive. Remember to make a note of this password to keep it safe, if you lose it you won't be able to access your data. Make sure you pick a robust password with upper and lowercase characters, numbers, and symbols.
- Finally, it is time to encrypt the device. Agree to any default settings and add random data if asked to do so. The encryption process will now begin. It may take a long time depending on the size of the hard drive.
Please remember that guide above is a general overview of the process (using VeraCrypt as an example). The encryption program you use will have its own guide, and although the steps will be very similar, it is worth using that application-specific guide.
Mounting the drive: Warning
When you connect your encrypted drive to your computer after encrypting it, the Operating System may ask you whether you want to format the drive.
Your system asks you this because the drive appears to be an unformatted RAW drive. If you are served this message, you must click cancel, and instead mount the drive to your computer to access its encrypted content.
Do not format the drive, or you will lose your encrypted data, and you will not be able to recover it.
To mount the drive, open your encryption program, select the drive you want to mount and enter your password. The drive will now decrypt and be mounted so that you can access the data.
Create an encrypted folder on an external hard drive (Mac or Windows)
If you want to create an encrypted volume on an external hard drive (rather than encrypting the entire hard drive) you can do so extremely easily.
NordLocker is a service that allows you to create an encrypted vault on any hard drive; including an external hard drive or USB dongle. The service is super easy to use, and you can use it for free to encrypt 3GB of data.
Below we have listed the steps for creating an encrypted vault on your external hard drive using NordLocker:
- Download and install NordLocker
- Create an account and pick a master password
- Connect your hard drive to your computer
- Open NordLocker and click Add
- Choose your external hard drive and create an empty locker
- As soon as the locker is created, you can drop your files into the locker to ensure they are always encrypted and require a password
How to encrypt a USB drive on Mac or Windows
Losing a USB drive is even easier than losing an external hard drive. This makes securing the data contained on the USB hub even more important. Admittedly, if your USB only contains a few MP3s – or some other non-sensitive information – you can probably chuck it in your bag without worrying.
For anybody lugging about work documents, personal information, or other sensitive personally identifiable information, however, it is vital to consider the security of that data. For this reason, we recommend encrypting the USB. The good news is that you can use the same encryption methods described above to encrypt your dongle.
This is because the dongle is still just an external hard drive, albeit much smaller. Thus, you can use either a third-party tool or Windows BitLocker to encrypt the drive. Alternatively, you can use NordLocker to create an encrypted locker on the USB dongle, into which you can drag and drop all your sensitive information.
Should I also backup to the cloud?
Yes. Although creating a secondary backup on an external hard drive is a great way to protect the important data held on your PC's internal hard drive, it is not completely foolproof.
Free Encryption For Gmail
An external hard drive can be lost, stolen, or even dropped. As a result, you could lose your data. It is for this reason that many people use the 3-2-1 backup rule.
By storing your data in a third location (usually a cloud strage service). You guarantee a greater level of redundancy, which means that you can always recover your data – no matter what circumstances arise. To find a trustworthy cloud backup service head over to our cloud backup recommendations.
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Despite the appearance of a number of good privacy-focused webmail services, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) remains the gold standard of email encryption. In this guide, we show you how to use PGP on Mac, explain how it works and how secure PGP really is.
PGP does have a number of issues (discussed below), but it is still the most widely used email encryption system, and therefore the most interoperable with others no matter which platform or email service they use.
It can also be used for signing and encrypting all sorts of other stuff but is mainly used to secure emails.
How does PGP work?
The details of how PGP works are, to be honest, rather complicated. The important thing to remember, however, is that PGP uses public-key cryptography.
Each user has a private key which they keep secret and use to decrypt emails sent to them using their public key. They also have a public key, which they freely so that other people can use it to send them encrypted emails.
- Private key – kept secret and used to decrypt own mail
- Public key – distributed so that others can use it to encrypt mail for sending to you
For this tutorial, we’ll stick to how to use PGP for encrypting emails, but PGP keypairs are also very useful for signing and verifying digital signatures.
PGP vs OpenPGP
When discussing PGP these days we almost always mean OpenPGP. This is an open-source 100% compatible clone of the original PGP, which is now closed-source software owned by Symantec.
Issues with PGP
When PGP is used to secure emails, the metadata - such as email addresses of both the sender and recipient, date and time of sending, and e-mail’s subject line - is not encrypted. Just the body text and any attachments.
Another problem with PGP is that it does not use Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS). So once keys for one encrypted email are broken, all other emails encrypted using the same keys will also be compromised.
Arguably the biggest problem with PGP, though, is that it's just not very easy to use, with the result being that most people simply don’t. To combat this, we will show you the two easiest ways to use PGP on your Mac:
Method 1: Malivelope
Mailvelope is a free and open-source browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that makes using PGP on your Mac about as easy as PGP is ever likely to get. Please check out our full Mailvelope How-to guide for a detailed look at how it works.
Method 2: GPGTools with GPG Mail
The most common implementation of OpenPGP is Privacy Guard (also known as GnuPG or just GPG). GPG on its own is a basic command-line tool, but GPGTools for macOS provides a GUI interface and advanced features.
It is worth noting that in 2018 GPGTools make headlines due its vulnerability to the EFAIL attack which affected all versions of PGP at the time. Since GPGTools 2018.2, however, this vulnerability has been patched.
GPGTools is free, but the GPG Mail plugin for Apple Mail is designed to help fund the open-source project and costs $22. This is a one-off fee, but you do need to pay again for new versions as they are released.
Download and install the GPG Suite.
Do please make sure to verify the download before installing it. During installation, stick with all the default settings.
Create a new keypair
.Open the GPG Keychain app, select New (the + sign) and fill in the relevant details. You can leave the Advanced options alone or play with them as you please.
Upload your public key to a keyserver.
This will allow others to find it using your email address so that they can send you secure PGP-encrypted emails.
Do please be aware, though, that once a public key is uploaded to a keyserver it cannot be deleted. The keyserver will send you an email asking you to confirm the upload.
You will see your newly created key in the GPG Keychain.
If you already have a keypair then you can import it by clicking the Import button. You can then right-click on it -> Send Public Key to Keyserver.
Send an encrypted email.
In order to send a PGP-encrypted email, you will need the recipient's public key. If they have already sent it to you (as an email attachment, for example) then you can import it using GPG Keychain.
If you already have it, then you can search by email address for public keys that have been uploaded to a key server. Once you have found the key you want, simply import it into your GPG Keychain.
Open the Apple Mail app. If you're using an up-to-date version of macOS (10.14 Mojave+), you will need to enable GPG in Mail. To do this, Go to Preferences -> General -> Manage Plug-ins and enable the GPGMailLoader.mailbundle plug-in.
Then simply compose an email as normal, ensuring that OpenPGP is selected in the new green drop-down button to the top right of the compose screen.
When you have finished writing your message you can sign and/or encrypt it using the two buttons to the right of the Subject line:
A) Sign - this verifies that the email was sent by yourself. When GPG Mail is installed, all messages are signed by default (button is blue). Click on the button to turn signing off.
B) Encrypt - encrypts the content of the message plus any attachments. It does not encrypt the subject line or hide any other metadata. Click the lock icon (turning it blue) to encrypt your email.
Hit Send, and you will be asked for the password to your PGP key. If you are worried that an adversary may gain physical access to your Mac, then you should untick 'Save in Keychain.”
Receive encrypted messages
When you receive PGP email that has been encrypted and/or signed with your public key, GPG Mail will automatically decrypt it and/or verify the signature using your private key.
Verify and sign keys
For maximum security, you should verify and sign keys. You verify a key by comparing the fingerprint you have of the key with the fingerprint owned by the sender to ensure they are identical. Ideally, this is done face-to-face, but a secure communication channel such as Signal Messenger will suffice.
Each imported key’s fingerprint is prominently displayed in GPG Keychain.
Once you are satisfied with the authenticity of a key, you can sign-it to confirm that you consider it valid. PGP works on a chain of trust, so you can opt to publish your signature in order to help others decide if the key is authentic.
And that’s the basic outline of how to use GPGTools to send and receive PGP emails in macOS. GPGTools has more tricks up its sleeve, however, which we may explore in future articles.
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