Security

DirectConnect connects only to the computer at the other end of a Thunderbolt or USB4 cable, and that computer sees only what you choose to share.

Which computers can connect

DirectConnect looks for other computers only on Thunderbolt and USB4 cable connections. It never connects over Wi-Fi, Ethernet or a VPN, so nobody on your network can reach it.

There’s no pairing code. The cable proves which computer you’re connecting to: to get in between, someone would need to put a device on the cable itself. The first time two computers connect, each remembers the other’s unique key. A different computer with the same name is treated as a new computer and asks again.

Two computers each cabled to the same Mac can find each other through it, because the Mac links its Thunderbolt ports. Both still need a cable to that Mac.

What the other computer can reach

Nothing, until you choose a sharing tile for it.
With Share a folder, that folder and nothing outside it.
With Share drives, your system drive. On a Mac, external drives aren’t included.
With Receive only, none of your files. It can only send files to you.
With Read-only on, it can open and copy files but not change, add or delete them.

Your computer enforces these limits, not the other computer. DirectConnect runs as your user account, not as an administrator, so the other computer can reach only files your account can open.

Files on the cable

DirectConnect encrypts everything the two computers send each other, including your files, with AES-256-GCM. Anyone reading the cable’s traffic would see only scrambled data.

Each connection starts with a fresh key exchange (X25519), and each computer proves its identity with its own key (Ed25519). The encryption keys are new each time, so a key from one connection can’t unlock another.

Every message also carries a check. If anything on the cable changed, repeated or injected a message, the receiving computer would reject it.

The internet

Your files never travel over the internet. DirectConnect goes online only to start a trial and to activate or renew a licence. Privacy and data protection lists exactly what it sends.