For Microsoft Windows users encryptions tools that support whole disk encryption and integrate pre boot authentication are widely available (see our sponsors below). Mac users just weren’t so lucky to have such a tool available. But… solution to this problem now comes from the PGP corporation. But there is a little limitation: it is for Intel-Macs only.
It’s been announced that PGP 9.9 will support encryption of entire Mac drives, no matter if this includes system files or private files. Just everything gets encrypted and you need to authenticate before the system can boot (Pre-Boot-Authentication). Clearly this means without knowing the password the system will not start. The features as announced:
- Full-disk encryption (including temp and swap files)
- Pre-boot authentication to protect devices if lost or stolen
- support of encryption for USB flash drives and external USB and FireWire drives
- Compatible with Apple FileVault
- Compatible with PGP Universal Server (providing consistent data protection for Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows systems)
- Apple Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 (Intel only)
As of yet we cannot tell if this solution might be compatible to Darwin-EFI emulated hackintoshs aswell, since release of PGP is expected in july.