Product Reviews

Compared to the PC, the Mac boasts a solid reputation when it comes to security threats. But some risks, such as identity theft from a stolen computer, are platform agnostic.

Intego's FileGuard X4 is designed to protect your most important files from prying eyes. Although new to Mac OS X, the program's history can be traced back to the 1990s. However, this is a vastly different product in comparison to its predecessor.

FileGuard works by creating virtual safes - effectively folders that you can password protect. You can turn any folder into a safe or create one from scratch, while the program's Assistant automates the creation of encrypted safes for some important folders, such as email and instant messaging archives. Safes have a set but adjustable maximum size - by default those that protect chat and email folders are 10 times the current size of that folder.

Safes have three modes: open, closed and 'put away'. When a safe is opened by entering the appropriate password its contents are accessible from the Finder, and files can be added and removed.

Safes that are put away are designed to be moved, whether from your desktop - where they appear by default - or to another Mac. Handily any Mac you transfer a file to doesn't need a copy of FileGuard, as such a safe is seen as a read-only folder,

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protected by the same FileGuard-set password.

You can change a safe's status in one of several ways, including through FileGuard's application window which lists available safes together with their status. Other ways are via the program's Dock icon and the Finder's menu bar or contextual menu.

Each safe boasts an avatar that can be customised and which changes according to its status. The advantage of avatars is that they can float above other programs, making it easier to interact with them.

But protecting folders does restrict the way you use certain programs. For example, when we tried to access Mail while the Mail folder was locked, it behaved as if the message database didn't exist and offered to import messages into a new folder. To get around this you need to open the safe before launching Mail and quit it before closing the safe.

It's also understandably awkward to restore previously protected folders to an unprotected state. You have to copy the safe's contents to a new folder, close the safe and, for those applications that expect a folder in a particular place, replace it in that location with its original name. Sensibly FileGuard's manual covers this.

The real question is: does FileGuard duplicate features already in Mac OS X? Certainly it can be customised more than Mac OS X's FileVault, which can lock your Home folder, though not individual directories. But Disk Utility lets you create what seems to be the same kind of encrypted sparse disk images that underpin FileGuard, which may explain how transferable they are.

FileGuard's advantage here seems more presentational than functional - and that's no bad thing. Its automation, use of avatars, and ability to view, create and put away safes easily make it simpler to work with than Disk Utility. But if you can live without these niceties FileGuard's modest price may appear on the steep side.