portable hard drive no longer requires password to decrypt it - security risk

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portable hard drive no longer requires password to decrypt it - security risk

I have a WD passport for Mac. It was previously encrypted and i would have to enter a password every time I wanted access to the drive - perfect. But then I had to decrypt it and when I had finished I re-encrypted the drive once again by right clicking and selecting encrypt drive. The drive is now encrypted again which is good, but the problem is that when I now plug it into my MBP the files are automatically accessible...the drive doesn't require a password to decrypt it anymore.

This is obviously a security risk so i want to go back to having to provide a password to unlock the drive. I've read some stuff about the password being saved in keychain but not had any luck looking for it and I'm a bit of a novice!

I'm using a 2012 MBP Retina with the latest OS

Can anyone help please?

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Feb 27, 2015 2:57 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

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209,535 points

Feb 27, 2015 7:54 AM in response to Sir Dane

The volume encryption password is stored in the keychain, which is itself encrypted with your login password. As long as you lock the screen or log out whenever you're away from the machine, the data is as secure as the login password. If you prefer not to store the volume password, open the Keychain Access application, then search for and delete all password items with the name of the volume. The next time you unlock the volume, deselect the option to save the password.

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Answer 2

Sir Dane Author

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Feb 28, 2015 4:03 AM in response to Linc Davis

I've tried searching in the keychain but can't see anything relating to my portable HDD. My drive is named 'Passport for Mac - 500GB' and I can't find anything relating to this in my keychain? Would it be named something else?

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Feb 28, 2015 7:10 AM in response to Sir Dane

Arrange the keychain items by kind and look for "encrypted volume passwords" in the default keychain, and also in any other keychains that you may have created. If you're sure there are none, either the keychain is corrupt and not all items are shown, or else the volume is not encrypted.

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Answer 4

Sir Dane Author

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Feb 28, 2015 10:10 AM in response to Linc Davis

No it's definitely not in the keychain. When i try to encrypt it i type in a new password but then get this message - 'The target FileVault volume is already encrypted.'

I do have it set up so that you have to login after it is turned off/restarted/in sleep mode but in System Preferences it says that FileVault is turned off?

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Feb 28, 2015 1:05 PM in response to Sir Dane

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data.

Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

{ diskutil list; echo; diskutil cs list; } | pbcopy

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.

The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.

The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.

If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

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