HELP>Making password protected CDs

**eyedo** · April 10th, 2003, 05:12 PM

I need to make my CDR's password protected.

I made a disk image w/password which is fine on the hard drive.When I click it it prompts me for the password.

When I and burn a CD in Toast 5.2 by dragging the diskimage into Toast(it asks for the password too) the CD shows the folders that were in the diskimage and nothing is protected after it burns.

What am i doing wrong ? Or,is this something I can't do.

It scares me to have all of my back up data so vulnerable on a massive amount of CD's for my business.

Thanks!
eyedo

**Giaguara** · April 10th, 2003, 05:24 PM

use encryption. either GPG or PGP - encrypting the files e.g. with your keys only, or e.g. Cypher (from versiontracker) - that aasks the password and decrypts back with the right password. that's mac (os x?) only, but it's really small utility (and it's freeware), so that could probably do it.

stufffit or zip the folder to be only one file, and then encrypt it.if you use your key, the others won't be able to open it even with your password unless they have your private key (pgp & pg)

**eyedo** · April 10th, 2003, 05:34 PM

Cypher doesn't let you do folder.
I have tens of thousands of folders.

I want the whole CD locked out.
I'd be afraid if it were stolen...

So,that's the solution I'm looking for.

The above mentioned freeare programs are for email or individual doc's and not folders of data.

Thanks,
eyedo

**lurk** · April 10th, 2003, 07:29 PM

It would be a bit circular but you could just burn the image as a file. Then when you mounted teh cdrom you would stil have to mount the image but that would still be encrypted.

I don't think that there is a way to encrypt the CDR and keep it compatible with the cdrom standards.

-Eric

**skoggis** · April 11th, 2003, 03:47 AM

Try Lame Secure. It protects files and folders with password.

If you need to keep your files very very safe, this might not be the program for you.

**bobw** · April 11th, 2003, 08:51 AM

Try this, found on another site;

- Open the Disk Copy program (in /Applications/Utilities)
- Select File -> New -> New Blank Image
- Select a CD-Rom mastering size (or go for 500mb for convenience). You might also make an image just the right size to hold the files you want to protect and allow a little room.
- Select AES-128 encryption
- You will be asked to enter a password or phrase, and verify it.
- You will now have a DMG file, that when you open it requires a password to be entered before it can mount.
- Open it, mount it, and put in whatever files you need.
- There is an option when entering the password to keep it on your Keychain. Do this if you want to, but remember that anyone who gains access to your Mac and unlocks its keychain may be able to access the files on the CD.

This encryption method won't keep out the NSA or any self-respecting intelligence agency or elite hacker, but it will protect your files against 99.99% of villains.
If you need harder encryption, I'd suggest looking at GnuPG, PGP, CryptoHeaven, etc ...

**eyedo** · April 11th, 2003, 09:13 AM

I won't even consider a third party program...I can't afford to be locked out of my data(were talking hundreds of CDs here) when I upgrade my OS and a 3rd party developer decides to drop support for his program.

I'll try the disk image thing again.I was able to do it on my system but it wasn't working with Toast.

Thanks.

**Giaguara** · April 11th, 2003, 10:19 AM

the disk copy allows 'just' aes-128 encryption. if you need a stronger protection, encypt that .dmg file as well. cypher gets the encryption to a higher level, and gpg/pgp up to 4096 (or maybe more) bytes (without the possibility to open it without your private keys).