Symantec PGP Encryption

  • 1.  Mac OS X Lion and WDE Mac

    Posted Jul 20, 2011 10:27 AM

    Today, Apple released Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on the Mac App Store.

    I'm currently running Mac OS X 10.6.8 and PGP WDE 10.1.2 (Build 9).

    Can I safely upgrade to Mac OS X Lion from the Mac App Store?

     

    Thanks.



  • 2.  RE: Mac OS X Lion and WDE Mac



  • 3.  RE: Mac OS X Lion and WDE Mac

    Posted Jul 20, 2011 02:35 PM

    No.

     

    You want to actually uninstall PGP after decrypting the drive (uninstall from the PGP menu - not just dragging to the trash).  The kernel extensions are not compatible, and should not be installed on Lion, so decrypt your drives beforehand, then uninstall PGP and upgrade to Lion.

     

    Alternatively, you can clone the encrypted volumes (after mounting) to an unencrypted drives (which tends to be MUCH faster than decryption), then repartition (not erase - have to create a new partition) the encrypted drive to make it usable.  This is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing and can cause data loss.



  • 4.  RE: Mac OS X Lion and WDE Mac

    Posted Jul 20, 2011 02:40 PM

    One more thing, I can now share performance comparisons.  PGP takes around 19 hours to encrypt my drives.  FDE took less than 9.   I used AES128 on both, so that's an equal comparison.

     

    And with that, it's 'so long and thanks for all the fish'.  Too many delayed releases, too many corrupt hard drives, too many recovery issues, too many times I can't apply critical security patches, and too much treatment like a mushroom from PGP management (kept in the dark and fed a lot of....fertilizer).  I've been a customer since the early 90's, but unless something changes (and I strongly suspect it won't), I'm done with PGP for good.

     

    Good luck to all those who are still using it, and good luck to the employees with the unenviable task of participating here in the forum.  It's has to be hard to type with both hands tied behind your back by your management.



  • 5.  RE: Mac OS X Lion and WDE Mac

    Posted Jul 20, 2011 06:29 PM

    PGP desktop (although it's an avialable command in PGPWDE) does not support AES128 on the mac. Even though you choose the encryption level, PGP desktop ignores it when encrypting and will still use AES256.

    --fast also doesn't work on the mac version of PGP. 



  • 6.  RE: Mac OS X Lion and WDE Mac

    Posted Oct 14, 2011 04:55 AM

    I've updated to Lion.  I decrypted the drive first.  Worked.  However,  I didn't de-install PGP and now it's bitten me big time.

    Just upgraded to 10.7.2 and it BRICKED my machine.  Two symptoms - listed here in an attempt to help other poor souls who find themselves in the same position...

    The update runs and the machine refuses to boot.  Verbose mode (cmd+V when booting) shows error 0xe00002c9 and the disc turns off.

    Mounting the disc using the disc utilities (cmd+R when booting) allows me to mount it (it's encrypted using Filevault2) and run a disk check which yields the message "Unable to bootstrap transaction group xxxx" but it continues through and says it completed OK.

    The fix is to re-install Lion over the existing system.  This means that the system boots. 

    However,  upgrading to 10.7.2 BRICKED THE MACHINE AGAIN (e.g. fails to boot,  crashes at statup) meaning I've lost a total of three days without my computer.  That costs me a lot of money.

    In my opinion,  Symantec are completely to blame and have failed in their duty of care to their customers.  No warnings,  updates,  nothing.  Oh,  they're damn quick to ask for money.  I will never deal with Symantec for as long as I live and will make it my business to stop other people (victims?) using them.



  • 7.  RE: Mac OS X Lion and WDE Mac

    Posted Oct 19, 2011 08:15 AM

    I'm sorry to hear about the problems that you are having. Do you happen to have a mid-2011 or new newer macbook air? If so, please see our forum sticky about this problem (recently moved to the top of the PGP WDE for Mac discussion group). We will have a product fix out for that issue by the end of October hopefully.



  • 8.  RE: Mac OS X Lion and WDE Mac

    Posted Nov 01, 2011 08:14 PM

    I have the same problem (and I do have a mid-2011 macbook air).  

    The sticky doesn't seem to describe this situation--

    The problem occurs with an unecrypted drive which just happens to have PGP installed.  The drive isn't recognized and won't boot.

    I agree with the previous poster that, as soon as possible, I will ditch this product.  It has caused me nothing but pain for the past 6 months.