Posts from — February 2006

I have recently come across several people who have been looking for a way to transfer files over the internet, from one Mac to another. There are many services like Usendit that will do this quite easily, however the way they work is they just send on a link to the recipient to download it. Anyone who obtains this link can download your files as well. The solution I came up with is to encrypt your file and send the password to the recipient separately, there is such a way to do this built into the Mac OS, and you can use it to secure any type of file, and even use files that are on it. Quite helpful for doing things such as securing tax or banking information you store locally on the hard drive. So here is how it works.

Step 1. Launch Disk Utility, which is located in the Utility folder inside of the Applications folder

Step 2. Click on New Image.

Step 3. In the Dialog that comes up type the name you want to make the disk, select what size disk image you want to make (be sure it is large enough for the files you want to send) and select AES-128 from the Encryption box. Then click Create.

Step 4. The program will then ask you to supply a password to use so that the disk image you just created can only be opened by those who have it.

Step 5. This leaves you with a file that you can double click on to mount as a disk, when you mount the disk it will ask you for your password, and when mounted you can use it just like any other disk on your computer. Make sure to “eject” the disk when you are done using it, so no one else can get at your files.

Wow that must make it go really fast!