Time Machine Password Protect Backup?

[danieljamesphoto]

Hi,

Just slightly worried that I can't password protect my Time Machine backup, a fairly major issue if my external hard drive is stolen. I know you can make Disk Images but are these not limited in size? it's just a concern since I like using Time Machine but think this is a fairly major flaw

cheers

 

[Islander]

Can't you encrypt the disk using Truecrypt?

 

[Jim.R]

You can encrypt it.

 

[juno]

You can encrypt it.

just don't rely on the sparseimage as your only backup. A few power fails or unplugging without ejecting and they'll both be duff.

truecrypt should work I think, if you remove the restrictions on what volumes TM can see. never tried it myself. I use Checkpoint Pointsec for my boot drive and don't take my backup out of the house, which is an old G4 with a RAID card.

 

[juno]

I tried encrypting an external drive with Truecrypt but wasn't able to get time Machine to see it on my MacBook Pro. I have been able to with 10.5.x so it should be possible.

I have a requirement to have an encrypted Time Machine disk myself soon, and have a few other ideas but it's going to take me a few weeks to get everything together to try what I'm thinking and to find the time to properly test. Will post back when I know more.

 

[Kasalic]

You can set a Disk Image up to be variable size, ideally you'd specify the maximum size you'd allow based on the size of the external drive. This can then be encrypted using 128 or 256bit AES (128 bit should be sufficient for most people).

Just select sparse disk image as the Image Format when creating it in Disk Utility.

The workround posted above is ok, but as it's not official you run the risk of it being broken by a future OS update, and given that this is a backup of important documents I'd not suggest taking any risks.