Is a Firmware Password enough to protect data?

[brainwave89]

Is a Firmware Password enough to protect data from being accessed on a less than 3-year old Mac? I want to prevent anyone accessing my information on my MacBook Pro if it is stolen.

Thank you for looking.

 

[bradl]

Is a Firmware Password enough to protect data from being accessed on a less than 3-year old Mac? I want to prevent anyone accessing my information on my MacBook Pro if it is stolen.

Thank you for looking.

No. no-where near it.

You'll need something like bios-level disk encryption, similar to Firevault2 or Bitlocker to protect that data. Reason being is that whenever the Mac is powered off, the disk lies in an unencrypted state when at rest., so your password protection would be preempted at boot time, allowing it to be bypassed.

BL.