Protect invisible folders (the ones with a dot)

Started by Bernak, March 19, 2011, 11:08:31 AM

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Bernak

Hello,

I want to know if it may be possible to encrypt an invisible folder. The problem is that I can't move it from my home and I don't want to encrypt the complete home folder. I can't select it from the Espionage app.

Any ideas?  :roll:

Thanks  :)

dave

#1
This is a very interesting scenario. I'd love if you could share some details on why you're using a hidden folder in this manner as I might want to, too :)

As for how to do this, you need to use a hidden-gem of a keyboard shortcut that I learned from Finder: CMD-Shift-G will open the Go to Folder window. To use this, click the + button and select "Encrypt single folder.." to create a new protected folder, and when prompted for the folder's location, press CMD-Shift-G, and enter the path to the hidden folder, as shown in the first screenshot.

After clicking "Go", the contents of the entered folder will be shown, and selecting "Choose" will start the protection process, as shown in the second screenshot.

I hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any further questions, and please do let us know how you're using hidden folders in your workflow.

Edit: My attachments are appearing in the wrong order. In the future I will try to remember to upload them in reverse order :)

Bernak

#2
Thanks will try it and see how it works.

As for my use scenario, its a very specific problem: The opensource FTP client called Filezilla uses the hidden folder ".filezilla" in the home user folder to store his preferences. The problem is that some of the files store the passwords for the ftp-servers in plain text and, for security reasons, I decided that it was a safe idea to encrypt that folder.

Another option to protect the passwords was to change the app preferences to search for them on a different path (an encrypted partition, for example), but for the Mac you have to change the application Package, with the result that the change is forced for every user in the computer.

Thanks and will think about other uses for such a folder.  :)

marty

#3
Thanks for the update! Like Dave and yourself, many of us have some hidden folders in our home folder. While most of the application developers don't keep anything sensitive in them, and know to not have plain-text passwords 'lying about' it is done more often than I like to think about.

Please let us know if this procedure doesn't work for you.
--
Best regards,
Marty
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