Securing your Mac
As computers become an integral part of everyday life, security becomes increasingly vital. Securing your Mac is obvious, but far more important is the data that it contains.
From a business viewpoint, replacing a Mac is a trivial expense compared to the cost of losing business critical data, allowing someone unfettered access to your bank accounts or allowing commercially-sensitive data out into the wild.
For home users the cost of replacing a lost computer is a much bigger issue but it is still important to consider what information the thief will have access to if they manage to get their hands on an unsecured Mac.
In this article we will look at the security risks surrounding an isolated Mac; we will address risks and security practices for individuals and networks and how to ensure quick resolutions.
The important questions to ask are “what are you protecting? and who are you protecting it from?
The first question initially seems easy to answer. You need to think about all the information that is stored on a computer; business or personal financial records are likely to be the biggest part but do you keep a file with the PIN numbers for all your bank or credit cards?
What about the passwords you use for online banking, do you keep them on the computer, maybe with the account number so that you can remember which ones to use for each account? If you don’t do that maybe you save the password so that your web browser enters it automatically. A thief may not be able to read your password but they don’t need to is all they have to do is go to your bank’s website and Safari helpfully enters all the details automatically.
What other personal information do you have on your computer, information that could be used to impersonate you? Do you do Self-Assessment of Income Tax? If so you probably have your National Insurance number on your Mac, as well as employer details.
You may shred letters and bills that you receive through the post but what about those received via email or letters that you write on your Mac which include useful information such as details of loans or your mortgage?
When thinking about who you are protecting the data against, here are a few things to consider:
Who has access to your computer? A thief can easily hide in plain sight, the office cleaner, the builder that you give a key to so that they can work on the house while you are out, you may trust a friend who comes in to water the plants when you are on holiday but who has access to the key that they have or what happens if they get broken into?
The basic fact is that you may well not be aware that somebody has had access to your data until long after it has happened. Somebody does not have to actually steal your computer to be able to steal the data that is on it. You need to take precautions against the casual thief as well as the determined burglar.
If somebody steals your Mac they can spend a lot more time trying to gain access to the data on it. The techniques that you use to deter the casual thief will generally only take a few minutes to overcome, enough to stop someone who wanders by your desk when it is unattended but not enough to be an inconvenience to you when you are using the computer.
If someone can have access to your Mac for a long period of time much more serious measures need to be taken to stop them compromising your data. If you have a PowerBook or iBook you need to take strict security measures all of the time as it is just as easy to leave it in a taxi or have it taken from your table when you pop to the toilet as it is to have it stolen from your home or office.