Welcome to Macintosh File Security. This document will tell you everything you need to know about keeping your files safe on your Mac. Some of these are easy to bypass while others are nearly impossible, it depends on the people you are trying to foil.
Section 1. Keeping your files safe.
****** RESEDIT ******
You can use ResEdit to make the files on your computer invisible. This is a VERY easy technique to bypass, but it is good for keeping files away from computer illiterates. To make a file invisible first launch ResEdit, and select "Get file/folder info". Select the file (or folder) you wish to make invisible and wait for the dialog box to come up. In this dialog there is a checkbox that says "Invisible". Check this box and save the changes.
Problems with this technique.
1. Anyone with ResEdit and half a brain can make the files visible again.
2. Find File (the directory searching utility that comes with system 7.5) can find the file, but you still need ResEdit to make it visible.
NOTE!
There is a program out there called BigSecret. All this does is make your files invisible. Whoop dee dee doo.
****** STUFFIT ******
DropStuff from Aladdin Software can protect archives with a specified password. "But wait!" you say, "You can just bypass that by replacing the MKEY resource." Not so if YOU STUFF IT TWICE. Yes, just stuff it twice with a password and it prevents the file from being opened by ResEdit. (For you tech junkies out there, it prevents ResEdit from making a scrap file thus making the paste of a null MKEY impossible) Cracking this without knowledge of the password is, I believe, impossible. I tryed everything I could think of and I still couldn't crack it.
Problems with this technique.
1. If you forget the password, you are completely screwed. (As with all things)
****** ENCRYPTION ******
There are many encryption prgrams including Pretty Good Privacy and others, but my all time favorite is Blowfish. Usage of this program is pretty straight-forward. Generate a Blowkey and encrypt. More info included with the program. It is available from my www site.
Problems with this technique.
1. If you lose the Blowkey, the file is gone.
Section 2. Deleting your files.
****** BURN ******
When you throw a file away, you should know that it really isn't gone. On a Macintosh, (and on most computers) the file name is just deleted from the directory, not the HD. This file can be recovered using Norton Utilities or a similar program. To delete the file completely, you need to use Burn.
Burn is the most widely used file deleter is use today. What does it do? It writes null data or zeros over the file on the HD. Not just the
directory. This causes the files to become impossible to recover.
(The following technique was first described in the Burning Kinkos text file by oleBuzzard)
Some places do not allow you to use Burn. To get around this difficulty, replace Burn's icon for a ClarisWorks document or similar and rename the file "Joes Finances" or whatever. It now looks like an innocent document. So now when no one is looking, open it up and begin burning!
****** SPEED DOUBLER ******
Speed Doubler 2 offers a 1 or 3 pass null data deletion method. This does the same thing as Burn, but is a bit faster. There are some reports that this doesn't always delete the files. (MacWorld May 97)
Section 3. All the stuff no one cares about.
I hope this has helped you to foil those pesky snoops who are always poking around your files.
