My New Mac, Lion Edition

Chapter 55. Encrypting Your Data and Guarding Your Privacy

You might think the safest way to protect your data is to hide your computer behind armed guards and keep it under lock-and-key. But there is an easier way: encryption.

Encryption scrambles your data and password-protects it—to read the data, you must type the correct password. As long as you’re the only one who knows your password, you’ll be the only person who can read encrypted files.

Note

If you encrypt data with a password and forget that password, you’ll never be able to read that data ever again. If you encrypt data with a simple password that’s easy to guess (such as 123 or PASSWORD), an intruder could guess your password and access your data. Your data is only as safe as your password. ...