Securing your files in OS X

If you are like me, you are concerned about privacy and security regarding your files. In OS X you can use Apple's FileVault, which will encrypt the entire disk, or you can rely on 3rd party applications to secure individual files for you.

If you want though, there is a much easier way. Apple's Disk Utility will create 256bit AES encrypted disks for you, which of course are images, so you can read/write/and keep safe.

This is a perfect way to keep files compressed, together, organized, and encrypted. It also makes it much easier to back them up to NAS, DVD, or using any of a number of backup utilities. My only suggestion is to use a large password. A friend of mine recently posted that he uses this method to keep his quicken files encrypted. If you are running on a laptop, you would definitely want to keep any financial records, lists of passwords, email, etc, encrypted. If it gets stolen you can always replace the laptop, but you cannot always replace the damage caused by identify theft or credit score loss.

Take it from a guy with bachelor's degree in criminology, a master's degree in criminology, and a professional information security certification, you need to keep private or sensitive data encrypted.