vault

With data security being an all-too-common concern, the options for encrypting data in OS X are welcome additions that are quite easy to implement. While you can store files in an encrypted disk image, you can also use FileVault to encrypt your boot drive. Furthermore, you can encrypt or decrypt any secondary volume by right-clicking it and choosing the option to do so, or by using the Terminal.

These features are convenient, but if you wish to change the password for an encrypted drive, you will find that this feature is not available along with the options for encrypting. You … Read more

Out of all the 6,700 files in the FBI's virtual reading room known as The Vault, one towers above the others in popularity. It's not about Nixon. It's not about John Lennon. It's a one-page memo concerning flying saucers. The FBI recently released a memorandum on the memorandum, declaring the "Guy Hottel Memo" the most popular document in The Vault.

Hottel, then a special agent in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, wrote the note in 1950. It concerned a reported sighting and recovery, in Roswell, N.M., of three flying saucers with small, human-shaped bodies inside. That's all pretty exciting, but the memo goes on to say that no further evaluation by the FBI took place. That's a bit anticlimactic.… Read more

Users often have the need to track separate passwords for multiple secure Web sites. With Password Bank Vault for Mac, users may store these passwords in one secure location and also generate new, random passwords for future use.

The program download occurred quickly, and, while there was no native installer, loading the program was easy. After initializing Password Bank Vault for Mac for the first time, the user must accept a short licensing agreement, which was not complicated. User tips, which can be dismissed, automatically pop up when the program starts. The basic interface is easy to use and any … Read more

Passware Inc. is a forensics security company that develops investigation software kits to reveal passwords on seized computers. Last year it released a version of its kit that allows an investigator to reveal the passwords of Apple's FileVault encryption technology, along with those for similar technologies such as TrueCrypt, PGP Disk, and BitLocker. Recently the kit has gained more features and now has the ability to snoop through a system's hibernation file for Google and Facebook account passwords.

The Passware snooping technology works by accessing a system's memory either through a port that has direct memory access (… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Republican senator says video games are a bigger problem than guns.

- DMVs ban txtspeak on license plates.

- The greatest hacker T-shirts this planet has ever seen.

- Amoeba Music finally puts used, errr, rare records for sale online.… Read more

Have you ever seen billions of dollars in gold bars? A video -- made in the name of science -- gives a glimpse into the massive gold reserves at the Bank of England.

University of Nottingham professor Martyn Poliakoff loves the elements. The eccentric science wizard works with others on a popular Web site and YouTube channel known as The Periodic Table of Videos; one latest video focuses on one of the most valuable elements in existence -- gold. … Read more

OS X's encryption service, FileVault, originally stored users' home folder contents in encrypted disk images. In OS X Lion, FileVault now uses Apple's new CoreStorage volume manager to encrypt the entire disk. With CoreStorage, the OS configures a small hidden partition with a preboot welcome screen that looks like the standard OS X log-in window and contains user accounts that are authorized to unlock the volume and cause the system to load and automatically log in to the account specified on the preboot screen.

Unfortunately, while more secure and while offering a relatively seamless experience when sitting at … Read more

FileVault, in OS X Lion and later, is part of a volume management technology called CoreStorage, which includes a full-disk encryption option that functions underneath the operating system, allowing it to be transparent to the operating system's functions and encrypt all data on the drive. This is a convenient way to secure OS X, but in order to work, it does need to have an unencrypted section of the drive that it uses to store the encryption keys for unlocking the drive.

Any drive encrypted with FileVault will have a small hidden partition that contains these keys, and for … Read more

A new feature that Apple has included in Mountain Lion offers a convenient way to encrypt secondary volumes on your Mac, making data security far more convenient.

Recently discovered by Mac OS X Hints contributor "kirkmc," if you right-click a nonboot volume in the Finder, the contextual menu that appears now contains an option to encrypt the disk. Selecting this will bring up a window requesting that you supply a password and a password hint for the drive, and upon doing this, the system will wait a short while (the length of which depends on the amount of … Read more