Mac And PC Hard Drive Encryption

The one thing you could do to protect your computer in the case of theft is drive encryption. Many people say to me if they steal my laptop who cares its password protected but I always ask if the hard drive is encrypted. Just because it has a password does not mean a skilled hacker cannot hook your device to a computer and get the data this is where drive encryption comes into play.

Let me explain what exactly disk encryption is first. Drive encryption is a technology that protects information by converting it into an unreadable code that cannot be deciphered easily by unauthorized people. Drive encryption uses encryption software or hardware to encrypt every bit of data that goes on a disk or disk volume. It is used to prevent unauthorized access to data storage.

Now I know this seems very overwhelming but it’s not. Both Windows and Mac have disk encryption as built-in options in this modern era of computing. If you are using a Chromebook, you are lucky you don’t have to do anything the disk is always encrypted. Only the signed-in user can access their profile data. there is no administrator account that can access everything. So, your data on the Chromebook is always the safest.

Microsoft Windows has its own version of encryption called BitLocker.

To Enable Bitlocker just go to Control Panel – All Control Panel Items – BitLocker Drive Encryption. Just click Turn on BitLocker.

Follow the onscreen instructions they are easy.

On a Mac, it’s easy as well and with the integration of Apple iCloud its easier than ever to turn on the Apple version of drive encryption called FileVault.

Just click on System Preferences – Security and Privacy – Click on the FileVault Tab – Click Turn On File Vault

You will then be asked for your iCloud account info and that’s about it

Personally, I like to use a third-party tool called Symantec PGP Full Disk Encryption as it’s a third-party tool and the inventor of PGP Encryption Phil Zimmermann works for Symantec. Zimmermann is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used encryption protocol in the world. Symantec PGP Full Disk Encryption will be overkill for most, but you do get much more options than you do with Microsoft or Apple. But for just the average user the built options in Windows and Mac are more than secure enough.  Anyone dealing with sensitive data should use drive encryption.

Any questions about drive encryption contact us.