iCreate - UK (2021-07)

Disk Utility

Developer

Apple Inc

Difficulty

Time

needed

Encrypt your Mac folders

for extra security

Keep your folders secure and safe from prying eyes by

ensuring they are password protected

N

ot all folders are equal. Some will

contain files you don’t want others

to see, such as financial documents,

contracts and sensitive info. To be sure people

can’t access your Mac and easily open these

folders, you can encrypt the data so it can

only be viewed by entering a password. This

also means you can feel more comfortable

sharing that data, knowing the other person

will also have to enter a password.

A good way to do this is by turning folders

into password-protected, encrypted DMG disk

image files using a process that makes use of

the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Make sure you use a password that is difficult to guess

05

What do the different icons mean?

When encrypting folders,you’ll end up working with DMG image files and volumes

Open DMG files in

Windows 10

Sharing encrypted DMG files with other

Mac users is easy as we’ve seen on these

pages, butif the recipient is using Windows

10, then they’ll needto consider purchasing

DMG Extractor to view their content.

That’s because the free version won’t

extract encrypted DMG files but, at £7.14

($9.95), theapp is inexpensiveenough

and there’s a 30-day refund policy too.

Knowledge base

The original folder

This is the folder we used to

create an encrypted DMG file. If it

contains information you wouldn’t

like others to see, then you can

delete this folder once you’ve put it

through the encryption process.

A mounted volume

Double-clicking a DMGdisk

image mounts it to your Mac.

You’ll find it on your desktop as

well as in the Finder sidebar. You

then have to click the mounted

volume to view the contents.

The encrypted

disk image

DMG files are Apple

Disk Image files and

you’ll have come across

them many times when

installing software. What

you’re doing when you’re

encrypting a folder is

turning it into a locked

disk image.

Share the DMG

If you decide you want to share

the encrypted file, it’s the DMG

version that you will need to

send. Right-click and you can

choose ‘Share’ from the menu.