Nitrokey Storage, Mac#

  1. Important: Once you plug in the Nitrokey, your computer will start the Keyboard Setup Assistant. Don’t run through this assistant but exit it right away.

  2. Download and start the Nitrokey App. Perhaps you want to store it on the unencrypted partition of your Nitrokey Storage

  3. Open the About window from Nitrokey App’s menu and check if you have the latest firmware installed. If it’s not the latest, please update.

  4. Use the Nitrokey App to change the default User PIN (default: 123456) and Admin PIN (default: 12345678) to your own choices.

Your Nitrokey is now ready to use.

Note

  • For some Versions of MacOS it is necessary to install custom ccid driver (for information see here), but in general MacOS should have the driver onboard.

  • For many use cases described, it is necessary to have either OpenPGP or S/MIME keys installed on the device (see below).

Key Creation with OpenPGP or S/MIME#

There are two widely used standards for email encryption. While OpenPGP/GnuPG is popular among individuals, S/MIME/x.509 is mostly used by enterprises. If you are in doubt which one to choose, you should use OpenPGP.

To learn more about how to use OpenPGP for email encryption with the Nitrokey, please refer to chapter OpenPGP Email Encryption.

To learn more about how to use S/MIME for email encryption with the Nitrokey, please refer to chapter S/MIME Email Encryption.