Second user account for security

[danny klim]

I’m making a new, second user account on my mac that i plan to use for banking and sensitive personal information. I have alot of applications on my main account and i’m not entirely sure that i trust them all, so it seems like a good idea to use a different account that doesn’t have so many applications installed.

First off, i’m wondering- Is this a good idea/practice? Or could applications installed on the main user account still affect the second user account?



Secondly, I just tried creating a new user account but it had all of the same applications installed as my main user account ( and they just weren’t logged in). When i tried deleting an app from the new user account, it also deleted the app from the main user account.

My applications are currently in Daniels Imac> Macintosh HD > Applications. I’m guessing that this means that all of my applications are in a all-user folder now, is that correct? If so, is there any easy and safe way to move the applications to a specific user folder? Is it just a simple as moving the app to the applications folder in my main user account in the finder?

Or is there a better way to do this?



Thanks, Dan

 

[Bart Kela]

While on the surface the second account seems to be a good idea, it may not help that much.

The biggest security threat on Macs is not the installed applications but what is between the two ears of the user. You have expressed great uncertainty about the number and (worse) provenance/security of the applications installed on your system. This indicates that the biggest security risk isn't the applications (which you don't bother to list), it's you.

Moreover, the biggest security threat on any personal computer is the web browser. Whatever malware web browsers may become infected with, they won't show up in your /Applications folder. Thus, the riskiest security-related behavior on your system is you using your browser. It is wise to assume that whatever you do in your regular account could have security implications on other user accounts.

Ultimately, it seems like you really need to sit down and think carefully about what you are doing with your computer and how much risk you are willing to take regarding your particular behavior/needs/desires and what you consider to be reasonably safe security.

It's not much different that deciding how fast you want to drive on the roads, whether or not it's worth blazing through a yellow stop light, having more than two drinks, smoking, not wearing a condom, eating fast food, drinking sodas with high-fructose corn syrup, whatever.

In my mind, if you take a holistic approach to safer computer usage, like using ad blockers for security reasons (not ad blocking) and avoiding dodgy websites, you will be far safer in the long run than trying to create a separate account.

Remember that a lot of these privacy breaches are done on the server side (like the Equifax debacle). Let's take example my mom who does not use a computer. Despite having zero exposure in terms of personal computing risks, well yes, her personal data was comprised in the Equifax incident and there is nothing she could have done about it.

In summary, while being cautious in the 1-2% of your time you are accessing your financial institutions or working with personal data, your biggest challenge is how you behave during the other 98-99% of the time when you are doing "ordinary" things. Until you come to grips about how you use computers and technology in general, I doubt that creating a secondary account will have much impact on the security of your financial and personal data.

Just my thoughts...