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How to protect your Mac's most secret stuff with an encrypted disk image

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Given the countless reports of our data being exploited, many of us are increasingly concerned about protecting that data. In this movie I’m going to show you how to protect a collection of data on your Mac.</p><p>
Launch Disk Utility and choose File &gt; New &gt; New Disk Image.</p><p>
In the New Blank Image window that appears name your image—something like My Secret Stuff. From the size menu choose a maximum size for the image—the absolute most you think it will hold rather than what it will currently hold.</p><p>
Choose an encryption type—either 128- or 256-bit AES (256-bit is more secure but takes longer to encrypt).</p><p>
From the Image Format menu choose Sparse Disk Image. You create a sparse disk image because, unlike other kinds of images, it will only consume the amount of storage used by its contents. So, if I have a 100MB file in it, it will only consume 100MB. It can, however, expand to the maximum size I originally defined. If I created a read/write image or DVD/CD Master, it would consumer every bit of storage assigned to it, even though its contents might be a third of that storage.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/2852122/how-to-protect-your-macs-most-secret-stuff.html#jump">To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here[/url]</p></section></article>

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