Each time I start my Mac (Mojave), I am asked for the password for my encrypted external Drive. When I enter it, the drive appears on my desktop. Can a Hacker access the encrypted drive while I am working elsewhere on my Mac? I usually Eject the external drive when I am not using it but if it is not at risk. I'd like to leave it mounted.
I did not turn on in sharing preferences, remote management or remote login
Once you unlock an encrypted volume it remains unlocked and accessible until the drive is ejected. If you can see the contents of the drive, then any app or process running on your computer can access it. If you don't always need the drive, then either leave the drive disconnected until you need it or just click "Cancel" when prompted to unlock it. If you "cancel" the unlock, then when you need to access the drive launch Disk Utility and unlock the drive.
It depends on your level of paranoia.
When the drive is mounted i.e. after you have entered the password then it is theoretically less secure than when not mounted. That is theoretically a skilled hacker could either try accessing it over the network and yes I saw your comment saying that file sharing etc. are not turned on or if they gain physical access to your Mac they could try breaking in to it by some method of unlocking the screen saver or by plugging in a hypothetical special device to attack your computer.
In reality for most people these will not be of genuine concern. It should be noted that the internal drive which is presumably also encrypted also remains equally vulnerable and obviously you cannot unmount it without shutting down the computer entirely. So it is considered good practice to fully shutdown your computer before transporting it out of your office/home rather than leaving it 'sleeping'.
Thanks very much
Is my Mac encrypted external drive secure
