How to Encrypt Your USB Memory Stick in Case of Loss or Theft [Mac Tip]

By Franklin Davis on Jan 30, 2008 filed under Apple, Tips | Comments

USB memory sticks are getting cheaper and cheaper while continuing to increase in capacity. This is great but also risky since now you have that much more information that can be lost or stolen. You can protect against your data falling into the wrong hands by creating an encrypted volume on the memory stick. On the Mac this process is very simple and I will walk you through it. For you Windows users go here. Go find your memory stick and we will begin…

After you have inserted your USB memory stick into an open USB port, go ahead and open up /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app. On the Disk Utility toolbar there is an option called New Image; select that and enter the information shown in the screenshot below. Make sure you select the memory stick as the destination (’KINGSTON’ in this case). Note that I selected a custom volume size of 950 MB since I’m using a 1 GB memory stick.

The encryption process might take a few minutes, so try to be patient. Eventually you will be asked to choose a password. Try to choose something non-trival, as even the best encryption can be neutralized by a weak password. You can add this password to your keychain if you don’t want to type it frequently.

That’s it, enjoy your newly encrypted volume.

Have something to add? Send me a message on twitter or leave a comment below.

What Now?

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dddan 7 months ago 1 point
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on 10.5, Using Disk Utility, File-->New-->New Blank image...

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Franklin 7 months ago 1 point
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Good addition, however, I'm using 10.5.6 and I still see a New Image option in the toolbar.

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2 /people/fdavis/ /people/fdavis/following/ http://www.zaphu.com franklindavis

J. A. 1 year ago 1 point
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Truecrypt is a great cross-platform solution for hard drive encryption, also can create encrypted volumes in file form that can be mounted. Might need admin privileges though as it requires mounting the encrypted volume.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

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Franklin 1 year ago 1 point
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@J.J. - I agree completely in the case of a windows machine. For a Mac I use a combination of filevault, 1password, firefox with noscript, firewall turned on of course, and little snitch. With that combination I feel pretty secure. However, I would be hesitant to enter passwords or private information on someone else's Mac.

Also I am very nervous connecting a computer directly to the internet, I feel much better from behind a NAT device with UPnP disabled. You can use the GRC port scanner to test your firewall at https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 . If you are serious about security you should listen to the 'Security Now' podcast as well.

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http://www.zaphu.com

guest 1 month ago 1 point
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u r crazy dude... seriously crazy! do you work for NASA? do you wear a tin foil hat?...

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Ric 7 months ago 1 point
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You really are biased towards windows... security in Windows or Mac is on the same level. Firefox, noscript, firewall, passwords, filevaults all exist in both systems.
If you want to do a serious analysis you mustn't constantly imply mac is better. Because, it's all the same.
The major flaw in security is the user. Not the OS.

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J.J. 1 year ago 1 point
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Thanks for all your replies Franklin. I installed Firefox Portable on my flash a while back. It works fine. I was just wondering out loud, hoping someone would see this, about a Mac app that could do the same as R2G.
The more that I think about securing my Mac, I seem to come with the same solution, which is,.... leave sensitive data and passwords OFF your machine. Then if you are hacked, the hackers gets noting of value to you. And, furthermore if it's all on a biometric secure flash drive, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about.
Hopefully some Mac developers will read this. Thanks for your time.

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Franklin 1 year ago 1 point
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@J.J. - You might consider running portable applications from a flash drive, for example keep firefox and thunderbird on a flash drive and carry that around in order to check the web and email from any mac. You can find out more here,
http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/
Check carefully about where your passwords are stored before using this solution. There are also windows versions available here,
http://portableapps.com/

Is this more to your liking? I simply don't know of a version of roboform2go for the mac, sorry.

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http://www.zaphu.com

J.J. 1 year ago 1 point
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1. It looks like more of an integrated hardware/software solution than Roboform2Go. My initial impression is that you would want more of a software solution so as to not be tied into a particular product. From what I read about R2G, one solution would be to install it on a biometric Flash drive ( not more than $60-$75 bucks) then you have absolutely NO worries if you lose it. Even after watching the IronKey Demo, I'm a little skeptical.
2. Definitely a downer.... no Mac support. "Has to be Initialized on a Widows based computer" kinda defeats the whole purpose. The beauty of R2G, as I see it( and I've never used the product), is that NOTHING is left on the client computer. As long as you were diligent, you would never have to leave anything important on either your browser or your computer. Put everything on the flash. Need to do some banking.... plug in the flash, access your PIN ... make the transaction... pull the flash out with nothing left on the client Mac. Wouldn't you feel a thousand times safer ? I would.
3. What do you think ?

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Franklin 1 year ago 1 point
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@J.J. - Upon further investigation I'm finding that IronKey's Linux and OS X features are limited, see https://support.ironkey.com/article/50150000000... and https://support.ironkey.com/article/50150000000... . Let me know what you think of the IronKey features.

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http://www.zaphu.com

Franklin 1 year ago 1 point
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@J.J. - Take a look at IronKey, it does what you are describing and more. IronKey supports Windows, Linux, and OS X. Check it out at https://www.ironkey.com/overview

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http://www.zaphu.com

J.J. 1 year ago 1 point
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Hi,
RoboForm2Go(Windows Only) boasts the following claims:
1.Your passwords and sensitive personal data is stored on USB key, so once you pull it out, the data is physically gone from the computer. In fact, your password files are never placed on the client computer disk.
2.Physical Portability
Both RoboForm program and your password files reside on USB key, so you can freely take them from one computer to another.
3.Full Automation
RoboForm2Go does not have to be installed on client computer. It starts automatically when you plugin the USB key and it attaches to browsers without need for browser helper object or toolbar registration, that is, no install is required. So you can run RoboForm2Go on computers where you do not have permission to install software.

This sounds too good to be true, but my brother swears by it. Is there anything like this for the mac ????

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Franklin 1 year ago 1 point
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@polo - If you are trying to create an encrypted volume on a 4GB USB drive you will probably have to create a volume that is around 3.8GB. Check the actual (not the commercial claim) volume for your memory stick and you should be able to create a custom sized encrypted volume of the appropriate size. Let me know if that works for you ...

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http://www.zaphu.com

polo 1 year ago 1 point
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Hi i tried to encrypt a 4gb usb and i cant because of the size, do you know any other way?

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