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What is your tips for keeping your Mac safe on open wifi hotspots?

T

Trey1984

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 5, 2011
168
0
How far do you go to protect your Mac?

What do you have installed/enabled?

Have you downloaded any safari extensions that work for you?

I'm new to my MacBook pro with lion and just want to make sure none of my work data is ever intercepted.

Have any of you turned on file vault? Is it worth it?
 
I make it a point not to transmit any sensitive data over an unsecured network, for example I won't access my bank accounts on public wifi. I also am careful about what files I open etc etc, to be fair though nothing but my credit info is really worth stealing lol
 
stridemat said:
If you want 'absolute' security then subscribe to a VPN service.
Click to expand...

What would you recommend? And do you personally believe that there should be a need for it? Or is the firewall pretty secure as everyone says? That the main reason I bought a Mac. 90% of the stuff on it is work related.
 
use https:// sites when possible and dont do anything important like banking
 
Trey1984 said:
What would you recommend? And do you personally believe that there should be a need for it? Or is the firewall pretty secure as everyone says? That the main reason I bought a Mac. 90% of the stuff on it is work related.
Click to expand...

I use ipredator. It's about £15 for 3 months, I turn it on and I don't worry about security.
 
Trey1984 said:
What would you recommend? And do you personally believe that there should be a need for it? Or is the firewall pretty secure as everyone says? That the main reason I bought a Mac. 90% of the stuff on it is work related.
Click to expand...

If you have a computer you leave on all the time at home, you can install Hamachi from logmein and form your own VPN for free. That is one option. There are also multiple vendors that require a monthly fee that offer to host a VPN for you as well. In my opinion, VPN is pretty much overkill for most people, but it is safest way to use the internet.

Another good option is tunneling your internet traffic through SSH, which can get pretty complicated to set up.
 
No1nfoProvided said:
If you have a computer you leave on all the time at home, you can install Hamachi from logmein and form your own VPN for free. That is one option. There are also multiple vendors that require a monthly fee that offer to host a VPN for you as well. In my opinion, VPN is pretty much overkill for most people, but it is safest way to use the internet.

Another good option is tunneling your internet traffic through SSH, which can get pretty complicated to set up.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Well it's not the banking or my credit card info I'm worried about as I wouldn't do that on a wifi at the airport. What I'm really worried about is if I'm at the airport and I have time to kill and do work there. My pro is my main and only computer, so I have all of my employees information on it. I just want to make sure that I have done everything I can to make sure that the sensitive information can't be hacked into while I'm connected online or if god for bid I lose my computer.
 
Trey1984 said:
Hmm. Well it's not the banking or my credit card info I'm worried about as I wouldn't do that on a wifi at the airport. What I'm really worried about is if I'm at the airport and I have time to kill and do work there. My pro is my main and only computer, so I have all of my employees information on it. I just want to make sure that I have done everything I can to make sure that the sensitive information can't be hacked into while I'm connected online or if god for bid I lose my computer.
Click to expand...

You might want to invest in a VPN service or set up your own if you have other people's information in your hands. I would not consider you a part of the "most people" I was referring to in my previous post.
 
Trey1984 said:
I have all of my employees information on it. I just want to make sure that I have done everything I can to make sure that the sensitive information can't be hacked into while I'm connected online or if god for bid I lose my computer.
Click to expand...

Have you encrypted your hard drive? FileVault 2 is easy to use.
 
No1nfoProvided said:
You might want to invest in a VPN service or set up your own if you have other people's information in your hands. I would not consider you a part of the "most people" I was referring to in my previous post.
Click to expand...

Would FileVault be a good idea to enable?

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getz76 said:
Have you encrypted your hard drive? FileVault 2 is easy to use.
Click to expand...

I was reading that FileVault that comes on it was a pain and I have never used it yet. Would it make it more difficult for me to login and such?
 
When on public wifi, go to the Sharing preferences in your System Preferences and make sure everything's off or the things you have on are for known user's with strong passwords.
 
stridemat said:
If your worried about people having physical access to your Mac then it would be a good idea.
Click to expand...

+1. You should encrypt your hard drive. If you do lose your computer, at least the person who ends up with it would not be able to access the hard drive without the password or encryption key.
 
getz76 said:
Have you encrypted your hard drive? FileVault 2 is easy to use.
Click to expand...

Encrypting now. Do you have to be connected to the Internet while it does this? Or if I have to leave abruptly can I put the computer to sleep and open it and it will continue?
 
Trey1984 said:
Encrypting now. Do you have to be connected to the Internet while it does this? Or if I have to leave abruptly can I put the computer to sleep and open it and it will continue?
Click to expand...

You don't need to be connected to the Internet, but I wouldn't recommend putting the mac to sleep. Just to be safe.
 
Witopia personalVPN Service

Trey1984 said:
What would you recommend? And do you personally believe that there should be a need for it? Or is the firewall pretty secure as everyone says? That the main reason I bought a Mac. 90% of the stuff on it is work related.
Click to expand...

Here is a post that I wrote on the forum back in December; let me know if you have any questions.


VPN will encrypt all the data being transferred between your Mac and the VPN server, as well as substituting your IP address with the VPN server IP address. Your ISP will not be able to log where you go online nor will it be able to intercept any of the data going through its servers. All the ISP can tell is that you are connecting to a VPN server.

I highly recommend Witopia.net (http://www.witopia.net/products/). I have used Witopia for over four years. Installation is very easy and you can select from a long list of VPN servers located in multiple countries, which can be very handy when traveling. All it takes to connect to a VPN server is clicking an icon in the Finder Menu Bar and choosing a server from the drop-down menu.

Witopia also has VPN available for iOS devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. On the iPhone you simply add as many VPN servers as you want and they will appear as options in the VPN section of your Settings. Depending on what type of Mac/iOS VPN you choose the monthly cost is around $5. There are no data limits. Witopia does not appear to offer an iOS-only option but I would contact the company to find out if it is possible to do so.

Witopia keeps minimal logs and purges all logs every 48 hours or so. And they offer a 30-day refund period should you decide to cancel the service. Witopia has excellent and fast customer service too.
 
I think the bigger danger is accidentally exposing a share that you did not intend.

Have a friend with a Mac and a friend with a PC browse for your system when you are all in Starbucks or something to see what you are serving up.

Other than that, it is not all that likely that someone us gunning for your data.

Encryption is a good idea in case your system is stolen.
VPN is good if you are doing work that is sensitive and you need to pass it to work.

R
 
There are readily available free programs that allow someone to monitor network traffic on a public WiFi or wired network. One program that I have seen displays every image that traverses the network. Other "packet sniffing" programs grab data. Some of these programs are very easy to use.

None of these programs are capable of decrypting data. Subscribe to a personal VPN service and you can safely get online anywhere. An added bonus: if Internet access is restricted due to geographical location you can simply select a VPN server in a location that allows access. This comes in handy when traveling overseas or when using Internet services that aren't available in your location. The last time I check Witopia had VPN servers in over thirty countries.

I also encrypt sensitive data on my Macs. I prefer programs that encrypt individual files and folders; they are faster and easier to use than the built-in options and whole disk encryption. These programs make it easy to transfer encrypted data to another computer, thumb drive, etc. as well when using online data storage such as Dropbox and Crashplan.

I use GoSecure ($20). An alternative is Knox but the last time I checked it was $40.
 
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