Apples Disk Drive utility software has four APFS format options: APFS, APFS (Encrypted), APFS (Case-sensitive), and APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted) for formatting new SSDs.
Not yet sure of using the options at this point. Case-sensitive seems important to me.
For some reason, I previously thought the APFS data was already hardware encrypted on a Mac internal drive. I must be wrong.
From the support page "File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac":
Choose one of the following APFS formats for Mac computers using macOS 10.13 or later.
- APFS: Uses the APFS format. Choose this option if you don’t need an encrypted or case-sensitive format.
- APFS (Encrypted): Uses the APFS format and encrypts the volume.
- APFS (Case-sensitive): Uses the APFS format and is case-sensitive to file and folder names. For example, folders named “Homework” and “HOMEWORK” are two different folders.
- APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted): Uses the APFS format, is case-sensitive to file and folder names, and encrypts the volume. For example, folders named “Homework” and “HOMEWORK” are two different folders.