Anyone try PGP encrypted disk with Parallels yet?

dhjdhj · Jun 18, 2006

I just noticed that PGP for Mac OS X just got released but although I've ordered a copy, it hasn't arrived yet. I'd like to use it to completely encrypt the "disk" file that Parallels uses - I'm wondering if anyone has tried this yet and/or whether I should expect any problems.

Note that I've been using the Windows version of PGP for years and on my windows system I encrypt the entire My Documents folder, my Mail folder, and my source code folder.

I don't really want to have to buy another copy of PGP for Windows to use with Parallels if in fact I can use the Mac version to simply encrypt the entire "disk"

Comments, anyone?

D

perle · Jun 19, 2006

It might be better to use TrueCrypt from within windows to keep an encrypted filesystem _on_ the Parallels virtual disk, instead of encrypting the entire virtual disk from OS X. I don't know; just suggesting another option. TrueCrypt is free and awesome.

dhjdhj · Jun 21, 2006

Well, if I wanted to encrypt files or folders from inside the VM, then I could just use PGP for Windows. But since I will want to use encryption on the Mac anyway, it seemed rather silly to have to have TWO encryption systems.

I'm not familiar with TrueCrypt but will take a look at it, particularly if it can support digital signatures as well as encryption of files and email messages.

perle said:
It might be better to use TrueCrypt from within windows to keep an encrypted filesystem _on_ the Parallels virtual disk, instead of encrypting the entire virtual disk from OS X. I don't know; just suggesting another option. TrueCrypt is free and awesome.

jim_az · Jun 21, 2006

Apples own, built-in FileVault feature is not an acceptable option?

Jim

dhjdhj · Jun 22, 2006

Doubt it - the PGP system is pretty ubiquitous - versions are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux - remember that I don't want it JUST for encrypting filesystems - I also use PGP for digital signatures and anyone can email me using my public PGP key - etc ---- I don't want to give that up.

jim_az said:
Apples own, built-in FileVault feature is not an acceptable option?

Jim

steve3 · Jun 22, 2006

Using Filevault doesn't keep you from using PGP for mail encryption and authentication. Seems a lot easier to me to encrypt the whole ball of wax rather than hunting and pecking folders to encrypt.

dhjdhj · Jun 23, 2006

I guess you haven't used PGP. One doesn't hunt/peck folders to encypt (although you certainly can do that) - PGP Disk creates a virtual file system (a bit like the VM disk) and then anything stored in that file system is automatically decrypted/encrypted on the fly. As far as I can tell, FileVault is an "all or nothing" system that just encypts the user's home folder. I don't want to encrypt everything under my home folder - just mail, documents, and source code. I certainly don't want to bother to encrypt large music and video files that are not proprietary.

Further, from what I've read, FileVault suffers from a number of other flaws compared to PGP. Even further, FileVault file systems are not platform independent. PGP also lets me do things like encrypting a memory stick. The source code is widely disseminated and understood, it supports multiple encryption methods, etc, etc, etc,

Independent of all the above, I don't see any reason to have to mange TWO encryption systems.

So I'm back to the original question to which the answer is apparently "no" - so as soon as I get an Intel version of PGP, I'll find out for myself!
D

steve3 said:
Using Filevault doesn't keep you from using PGP for mail encryption and authentication. Seems a lot easier to me to encrypt the whole ball of wax rather than hunting and pecking folders to encrypt.

steve3 · Jun 23, 2006

How do you selectively encrypt just mail, sourcecode and documents without individually selecting their folders- which is what I mean by hunt and peck.

Back to the original "how to encrypt the disk"- you could do it for free with OS X built in tools- put the .hdd file in a AES-128 encrypted disk image, and that's quite secure. I prefer the truecrypt idea- that .hdd's contents would be useless without the right authentication.

dhjdhj · Jun 24, 2006

Step 1: Create a virtual encrypted disk, give it a drive letter (X

Step 2: (As needed) Copy folders in your original drive (such as "My Documents", "src", "mail" to X: - a ONE TIME OPERATION
Step 3: (Optional) Use TweakUI (say) to make the "My Documents" special folder refer to X:\My Documents

You're done! All files under X: are automatically encrypted/decrypted on the fly as your apps reference them. You just work as normal - indeed other than entering the password when you logon to your computer, you won't even notice anything different.

steve3 said:
How do you selectively encrypt just mail, sourcecode and documents without individually selecting their folders- which is what I mean by hunt and peck.

As I've said SEVERAL TIMES (sigh), OS X's tools are limited and not cross-platform - I don't need TWO encryption systems - PGP does support whole disk encryption if you want it - great for encrypting memory sticks

steve3 said:
Back to the original "how to encrypt the disk"- you could do it for free with OS X built in tools- put the .hdd file in a AES-128 encrypted disk image, and that's quite secure.

Well, you can do that with PGP whole disk encryption but I think that's not a great idea - (a) it seems rather silly to encrypt non-proprietary stuff like music and videos (although I suppose some people might want to encrypt porn if they have it) (b) it's useless if multiple people need to use the computer (c) how would automatic backups and updates get done in a corporate environment if the remote servers couldn't access your files?

In any case, the reason there are multiple products out there is because different people have different needs - my needs require PGP!

steve3 said:
I prefer the truecrypt idea- that .hdd's contents would be useless without the right authentication.