Anyone using SecureDoc Full-Disk Encryption for Mac from WinMagic?

Hi K T,

Thanks for replying. Yes I used the search. But it didn't help me. I only found iProd sync problems and information about harddrives with encryption support. I don't have questions about that.

I can't find much information about SecureDoc anywhere. Not here in the forums, which I use often to look for answers, or anywhere else. I can't even find a place to buy the software!

I suspect SecureDoc is enterprise software not intended for a single end customer. But still SecureDoc looks like a very good product for Snow Leopard full disk encryption. And I am looking for people who have experience with it, and perhaps even know where to buy it.

I give up.

I find more and more articles who claim SecureDoc from WinMagic is expensive software for enterprise business only.

http://ibx.intel.com/directory/productpage/tabid/85/language/en-us/p-5298-secure doc-full-disk-encryption.aspx

Quote:
Key Business Segments:Enterprise
Supported Operating Systems: Snow Leopard

Its a shame, its the only Snow Leopard compatible full disk encryption software I know of.

Hello Didier,

Before I bought PGP full disk encryption, I thought about FileVault. But it's just what you said. Using FileVault, TimeMachine only backups when the user is logged off. That's unacceptable for me. I love TimeMachine backing up all my files every two hours. I can't/want live without that. And with full disk encryption you know for sure all files that are accidentally outside of the user home dir are encrypted *** well.

Encrypted images are to much of a hassle for me. And not everything is encrypted.

I am the only user on the MBP anyway. Else FileVault would be a great solution.

Thanks for posting. But for me personally full disk encryption gives me the most easy of mind. For now I stick with PGP and Leopard. When PGP (FINALLY) releases version 10 (which requires big money again I presume) I switch to Snow Leopard.

Or I have to find some ChekPoint sollution.

FYI: I found a website called: MySecureDoc.
http://www.mysecuredoc.com/product_info.asp

This site is from WinMagic and is old. It shows old products called MySecureDoc Personal Edition.

This is the only place I can find WinMagic software for the end-user. But WinMagic had this to say about the product:

Effective September 25, 2008 WinMagic will discontinue sales of the MySecureDoc Personal Edition product line including Media Edition, Personal Edition and Personal Edition Plus.

After this date, these products will no longer be available for sale. Current customers with active support will continue to receive support per their contracts but no new licenses will be sold for this product line.

We encourage you to learn more about WinMagic’s other product lines for disk encryption: SecureDoc™ and SecureDoc Enterprise ™ (www.winmagic.com).

We sincerely appreciate your support and regret any inconvenience this necessary action causes you.

I am currently testing a trial license from Checkpoint Full Disk Encryption.
http://www.checkpoint.com/products/datasecurity/pc/index.html

The company where I work is a Checkpoint reseller, and normally only has dealings with other companies, not end users. But we arranged a trial license and I can buy a single user license Checkpoint Full Disk Encryption if the test proves Checkpoint Full Disk Encryption is a good solution.

I created a bootable usb disk with Snow Lepoard on it. But I was unable to install FDE on it. After reboot I only get a blank screen, that's it. Probably it isn't supported to boot from a full disk encrypted removable drive, I can understand that.

I can't create a virtual Snow Leopard machine (legal reasons) to test it on. And all FDE solutions I found aren't compatible with Mac Server, which is a shame because you can virtualize Mac Server legally.

So now I am planning to change the hard-disk of my MBP this evening with another hard-disk to test Checkpoint FDE there. I don't want to upgrade my current Leopard installation to Snow Leopard only to discover it doesn't work as expected. I could of-course use my current installation and when it doesn't work rollback to a timemachine backup, but before that I have to decrypt my disk and uninstall PGP witch will take 1-2 days, and encrypt again when the test is over. Not pratical.

I will let you know how the test with Checkpoint Full Disk Encryption went!

I suspect PGP (wich I am using now) has the same problem. I know that keeping the MBP suspended while travaling is very unsecure, because then only the Mac OS X login is presented to the person using the MBP. For that very reason I always shutdown the MPB before I travel. Ofcourse this doesn't help when my MBP got stolen at work when I am at a coffee break. But the main reason for me encrypting all my data is when my MBP got stolen while traveling or when I have to give my MBP to a Apple retail center.

When you use a Hardware FDE Drive, does it mean you have to enter your FDE key again after you suspend your laptop? And does a FDE drive require third party software or does it 'run' on its own?

SilentCry wrote:
Checkpoint's Securedoc for Mac ist the only solution that can handle FDE-Drives.

Do you mean: "Checkpoint's Securedoc" or "WinMagic Securedoc?

guydavies wrote:
I've had a fairly lengthy discussion with the folks at WinMagic because I'm in exactly the same situation as you.

Hi Guy,

Thanks for the reply. I have done some reading, to know more about the FDE drives from seagate, EFI vs. Bios, and so on. WinMagic does sound like the best solution, and the only one for hardware encryption support. It would be great to put a 500GB 7200 rmp momentus seagate drive into my MBP, that would really boost performance, hardware encryption + faster disk = great.

It's only a shame WinMagic isn't easy to get. Is there a final release who supports snow leopard? I am really doubting between Checkpoint and WinMagic now. I have my doubts about Checkpoint until now, but WinMagic is playing hard to get.

If there was a webshop somewhere who sells SecureDoc from WinMagic, I would order a copy TODAY