HOW APPLE MACBOOK ENCRYPTION WORKS MAC

ThatвЂ™s why itвЂ™s absolutely essential to have a Time Machine backup of your T2 Mac. One impact of having the SSD always encrypted is that is the T2 chip fails or is damaged, all your data could become irretrievable. The вЂњStartup Security UtilityвЂќ is discussed on page 10 of the Apple T2 Security Chip Security OverviewВ linked to at the top of this article. ThereвЂ™s a new utility, available in Recovery mode (CMD-R at boot), that sets the preferred levels of disk security - even all the way back to how previous Macs worked.

HOW APPLE MACBOOK ENCRYPTION WORKS MAC

Note that there is a way to control whether your T2 Mac operates is this high security level mode. Finally, the T2 Mac, by default, is prevented from booting from external media. So this mode requires a network connection and the time of installation. Now the decryption key is a combination of the MacвЂ™s unique hardware ID and your own provided passphrase.ДЄlso, by default, for the sake of security, only your current OS, or a (digitally) signed OS trusted by Apple can run. Unlike the past when turning on FileVault would tie up the Mac for many, many hours, the data in T2 Macs is already encrypted. To ensure that the contents of the SSD, when in its host, remain encrypted until your passphrase is provided, you should enable FileVault. However, when the chips are still in the Mac, a special hardware ID in the T2вЂ™s Secure Enclave will decrypt the data. The idea is that if the SSD chips were to be removed from the Mac by a malicious act, all the data would remain encrypted. This happens whether or not you enable FileVault during the setup process. This encryption is performed with 256-bit keys tied to a unique identifier within the T2 chip. From Apple:Дata on the built-in, solid-state drive (SSD) is encrypted using a hardware-accelerated AES engine built into the T2 chip. There are some things to note about how your new Mac handles and encrypts the content of your MacвЂ™s Solid State Drive (SSD).

Which Macs Have the T2?ДЄpple also posted a tech note, HT208862, listing them. But the implications of the design will have an impact on users of new Macs. This is all made very transparent, almost as if itвЂ™s not there. ItвЂ™s AppleвЂ™s authoritative discussion of everything the T2 chip does, and the nomenclature makes it tough reading for many.Д«ut one thing it reveals is that Apple has implemented a first class security infrastructure in its new Macs that goes a long way towards protecting the Mac from assaults on its security and integrity. Apple tech note HT208344: вЂњAbout encrypted storage on your new Mac.вЂќ.Apple T2 Security Chip Security Overview from October 2018.There are two Apple sources IвЂ™ll draw from:

How apple macbook encryption works