a few questions on Espionage 3 and FileVault 2

Started by dimitri_b, June 13, 2012, 12:26:07 AM

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dimitri_b

I have been using Espionage 2 for a while and now also have Espionage 3, both work fine with occasional hiccups, nothing drastic so far.

The Espionage 3 announcement recommended using FileVault 2 for encrypting application data. But in my case I have 4 users on one Mac, and only one user has something worth encrypting, while two other users are kids and I don't want them entering passwords or being involved in encryption in any way. So my questions are:
1) will FileVault 2 work for this multi user arrangement described above?
2) if yes to 1, will there be a performance penalty?
3) if yes to 1 and no to 2, why use Espionage at all rather than just FileVault?
4) can I run both Espionage 2 and 3 at the same time, 2 for applications and 3 for other data? So far it seems to work OK
5) the update to Espionage 3 promised to allow Library folder encryption, and I don't mind manually unlocking those folders - are there any other reasons not to use Espionage 3 for application encryption and ditch Espionage 2?

zsolt

#1
Hello Dimitri_b,

Quote1) will FileVault 2 work for this multi user arrangement described above?

FV2 encrypts the whole disk it is not user related

Quote2) if yes to 1, will there be a performance penalty?

Technically, of course, but that is less important, more important is if you will be able to notice this, or if it will slow your work on Mac down. This I do not know, it surely depends on the speed of your mac and disk, plus what do you use it for (reading writing large chunks of data or just plain office work) the more intensive the I/O on disk is, the more probable you will see performance problems, all we can do is surf the net for users with same Mac performance as you have and see what they say

Quote3) if yes to 1 and no to 2, why use Espionage at all rather than just FileVault?

As you said, it is questionable it is worth encrypting the whole disk if you need to safeguard just some small amount of critical data, plus, once unlocked FileVault gives access to all data, so if you leave your Mac unattended the access is wide open to all. With Espionage, even if you are logged on, there is no access to protected folders unless you unlock them.

Quote4) can I run both Espionage 2 and 3 at the same time, 2 for applications and 3 for other data? So far it seems to work OK

Yes, the only limitation to the best of my knowledge is that you cannot open Espionage V2 app as long as V3 is started, but you can lock and unlock the folders using menu item or by clicking on them. To start the V2 app you simply quit V3, start V2, do what you wanted and then close it and start V3.

Quote5) the update to Espionage 3 promised to allow Library folder encryption, and I don't mind manually unlocking those folders - are there any other reasons not to use Espionage 3 for application encryption and ditch Espionage 2?

3.0.1 is not out yet so I do not know the details. The critical point AFAIK (but this is true for V2 too) is the automatically reopen application after logon, because for Espionage to work properly it has to start, and if the app which has to reopen will be started by OS X before Espionage then it will break. So I think we will have to wait for release to be sure that this works fine. Disabling reopen on login will surely make the things less trouble prone.

I hope I managed to answer you...

Rgds
Zsolt
Follow @espionageapp on twitter for news! | For general Mac support, please visit Mac Me Support

dimitri_b

#2
Thank you, zsolt.

Just to confirm on the first question - because the whole disk is encrypted by FileVault2, if the Mac is switched off and my 6-year old switches it on to log in under his account with parental controls and no password, he will have to enter a password for FileVault2 to decrypt the disk. Is it correct?

zsolt

#3
Yes
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