There is a Mac app called iAlertU that you should check out for leaving your Mac unattended for a short period of time. The look on the persons face when they try to access your Mac with this turned on is priceless.
I've been using this app for years now and really enjoy it. With the exception that the Apple Remote is needed. This is a nice security feature considering i'm the only person that touches my Apple Remote, though there have been times when I couldn't locate the Apple Remote and the MBP was ringing extremely loudly inside a public library...Concerning iAlertU, I wonder what's to happen if the alarm rings but the Apple Remote's battery is dead...? (lol)
Just wondering, what do YOU have that is so valuable that someone would actually waste time doing that to your computer?
I think you're paranoid.
I agree I think I'm paranoid, however there are an array of files I wouldn't want anyone to see..for example, my folks tax information they've provided when I've filled out Fafsa and other University documents, banking info, my personal taxes...and simply other embarassing files I wouldn't want others to see, such as saved
weight loss articles and the like.
Currently I'm using AllSecure to house my yearly credit report files, alongside over 50GB's worth of videos and photos. Most vids and pix are harmless, though many are private films (personal).
He's a college student. It's probably has to do with porn lol.
There is some porn. But I'm not ashamed of having porn. I'm more interested in hiding a folder that contains ALL of the photos i've taken with my cell phone between 2009-present. Admittedly, most of the photos taken with my cell phone are simple and harmless, though some may consist of a nude girlfriend. I wouldn't want someone simply sticking a flash drive or SD card slot in my MBP when I'm not looking and them instantly obtaining over 2000 of MY photos.
(Currently all these private photos are in AllSecure, while iPhoto houses all the normal, innocent photos of me at the Zoo, of Great Wall of China, etc.)
Easy to deal with. Just set it so every time you need to access your computer you need to enter your PW. I.E. coming back from screen saver, sleep, turning on, etc. No reason you should ever leave your laptop alone and unlocked if your so paranoid. I lock the screen even to pee because my room mate and I like to change each others facebook statuses.
Exactly, a great reason to lock your Mac.
Overall within this thread, I'm not stating my files should be so important that I need to encrypt them to the max but simply that I don't want anyone to be able to access my files; whether it should be by simply sticking an SD card when i'm not looking, or if my MBP was stolen altogether.
Safari & FireFox Password Security:
I know how easy it is to obtain passwords in FireFox. (This is in fact why I began the thread) Because I opened FireFox and saw that my security preferences had been opened, which of course houses all the saved passwords. I'm wondering if Safari offers a better level of protection. The only negative thing i've heard about Safari is that when in "Private Browsing" mode, this method isn't truly private, with OSX still saving these files someone on the system.
1. Account password (maybe firmware password too)
2. New non-admin account (with no password or something easy)
3. Fast user switching
I'm doing this now.
I'm trying to figure out what is the issue here.....
You are a college kid living in the dorms. You don't have national security files, you don't have financial records of million/billionaires, you don't have health information for 1,000's of people, so what's the worry? Seriously, no one cares about pictures of your ex-girlfriend or your bank account with 20 bucks in it.
What they do want is your laptop as a whole. Seriously that's the biggest worry you should have in college. When I was in college, it was a monthly occurrence that someone left their dorm room to run to the bathroom, came back to the room and their laptop was gone. THAT should be your worry. How to keep your laptop from being stolen.... Seriously no one is going to care about the data on your laptop.
I'm not a billionaire, nor do I have sensitive national security files...however, it would be a b*tch to have to recover stolen banking info, and I can't begin to imagine if someone got a hold of the logins to my investing accounts and messed with my portfolio, or simply cash out all the funds. I'm sure no one cares, but this is a preventive measure. Just because I'm not the president of the United States doesn't mean my computer doesn't hold (personally) important files.
OP for your purposes I think file vault or an encrypted disk image will work well enough.
If you want *max* security from theft then simply don't let anyone have physical access. Or atleast make sure it's tethered down, perhaps even hidden away connected by keyboard and mouse to a monitor that people can use if they must (although how the heck can they afford UC** and not a laptop
too much pizza and beer ? ). The k-lock on the side is a nice toy but easily destroyed in the heat of battle.
For best security software wise i'd go with (What I use) PGP Whole Disk Encryption. Encrypt your entire OS partition (which will slow it down, less so if using an SSD), and then store your files on an encrypted flash drive or disk image that is married to your private key & passphrase (make sure to duplicate this private key as well).
Also if you're
hyper paranoid on the OS side you can use Apple's trusty
Snow Leopard Security Configuration Guide. Your box will definately be one of the safest PCs around though you achieve this by reducing functionality (attack surfaces) so bad guys can't get in. It's a good read though.
I think perhaps thats too much security for myself. So far within this thread i've learned that there is a method to make sure a knowledged person can't access my Mac at startup, however I need to learn how to enable this, so as to prevent anyone from accessing my Mac. Secondly, to set up a good password and require that password after everytime the computer goes to sleep or screen=saver mode. Finally, to simply not let anyone really use my computer nor leave it lying around......and i've also just enabled fast user switching.
