How to Use Espionage to Prepare Laptop (in case it's stolen)

[jasn]

In order to protect against the loss/theft of my Yosemite MacBook Pro, what would be the correct folders to encrypt, and the best method to use Espionage to encrypt them?

Instead of encrypting the entire disk, would something like encrypting my entire home folder be sufficient?

Then I would just need to setup Espionage to open the home folder upon successful login, and then not lock it until either I logout, or for an extended period where I'm away from my laptop. Right?

I would like to protect all personal data, but then create a guest level account that could be used, so that tracking software could help me recover the laptop. (Thinking of using Orbicule). Any advice would be appreciated.

If a howto for properly preparing such a system has already been done, please feel free to point me to it.

Thanks,

Jason

[zsolt]

Hello Jason, the primary purpose of Espionage is to protect folders which contain sensitive data. If you consider your entire User folder to be sensitive, Espionage cannot do that, because access to data from User folder is required earlier then Espionage manages to load itself upon login. In the past, Apple was protecting User folders with file vault, now they are protecting entire disk.

So if you would like to protect more then just particular folders within your user folder, then Espionage is not the best solution.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Rgds
Zsolt

[zsolt]

Here is a good article on FileVault: http://www.macworld.com/article/2880039/how-to-encrypt-your-mac-with-filevault-2-and-why-you-absolutely-should.html

[jasn]

If you consider your entire User folder to be sensitive, Espionage cannot do that, because access to data from User folder is required earlier then Espionage manages to load itself upon login.

First off, thanks for your response. Second, I actually purchased Espionage because of the recommendation on Orbicule's website, so while it's disappointing that Espionage cannot encrypt the entire home folder, there must be some way to accomplish what I'm asking. (I can't use FileVault for obvious reasons)

1) Asked another way, what are the folders in my home directory, that cannot be encrypted upon system startup?

2) Or, is there some workaround for encrypting all personal data on my Yosemite MacBook Pro?

Thanks,

Jason

[zsolt]

Hello, what are those obvious reasons you cannot use filevalut, is it because you want guest account enabled?
Here is an article on that: http://www.macworld.com/article/1163387/can_filevault_2_and_find_my_mac_foil_thieves_.html

In theory Espionage should be able to protect all your user data, but I do not believe it is worth the trouble. Your data is spread all over the user environment, and protecting all the folders would be tedious and would not guarantee 100% protection.

Namely, we could protect your Music/Pictures/Movies etc. but the trouble is with the Library folder. Applications store application data in that folder, usually under Application Support folder, but not only there. So we would need to protect folders one by on in the Library folder until we encounter some logon problem. But then again, there are many ways you can use the mac, and it would be impossible to test all the combinations.

We are very thankful to Orbicule for their recommendation, in fact we are in good relation with them, but in this case I think we are on a wrong track. If you wish, refunding you your purchase is not a problem as long as it was within 60 days, but I guess we would do it even after that in this case.

Our ultimate goal is to have our customer happy with our product, but your case is not the one intended for it.

But then again, if you really wish, we can do it together, you try and as soon as you see some problems, let me know the details and I will try to figure out why do they happen and possibly provide you with a workaround.

rgds
Zsolt

[jasn]

Thanks again for the response Zsolt.

I understand that Espionage is a cryptography app that is designed for specific folder encryption, and because of some of the limitations of how Apple configures things, it's not designed to encrypt either a home folder, or an entire disk.

If it's the case that I cannot use Espionage to encrypt all my personal data, then as the article you pointed out describes, it appears that my best option would be to use FileVault 2 with it's Guest User Option. The only down side I see to that is that it's probably apparent to anyone who steals Macs that it's a honey trap. (Although it's better than nothing, especially with a firmware password)

I still see some usefulness in using the Espionage app for encrypting specific folders, in addition to using FileVault 2 to encrypt the entire disk. It's just I was hoping to use Espionage instead of using FileVault 2, because the Guest Account option would appear more legitimate.

Anyway, please consider this a suggestion for future enhancements then. Perhaps Apple will provide an ability to hook into the boot process in some way that makes entire home folder encryption a possibility for an app like Espionage.

Jason

[zsolt]

Hello Jason,

Espionage 2 worked at a lower level, deeper in the OS X, but we had to abandon the concept because Apple is tightening the OS X security. Nowadays, in this nice world we live, you do not want to allow "ability to hook into the boot process" if you want to be safe, and this is why Apple will not allow this any time soon. But thanks for this conversation and for your suggestion, we will put it on our feature request list.

Enjoy using Espionage and if you encounter any problem, or you have some questions or further suggestion, just let me know.

Rgds
Zsolt