Chapter 13: Strengthening System Security and Fine-Tuning Firewalls

Overview

(Or: You don't have to unplug your computer to keep it—and yourself—safe.)

One of the biggest computer-related topics nowadays is security: keeping your computer safe from hackers on the Internet, keeping your data safe from prying eyes, and keeping your e-mail and files safe from viruses. Thankfully, OS X is pretty secure out of the box, but you can reduce or increase that level of security depending on how you use your computer.

In this chapter, I'm going cover a range of topics relating to system security. I'll show you how to use OS X's built-in firewall to keep your computer private, and how to use OS X's multi-user capabilities to keep your data private. I'll show you how to prevent others from booting up your computer without your permission, and how to encrypt and delete your data to keep it super-safe. I'll also cover OS X's Keychain and how to take advantage of it. Finally, I'll talk a bit about viruses and what you can do to keep them off of your Mac.

Tip 

There's no way I can over everything security-related in one chapter. If you're interested in learning more about Mac OS security, be sure to surf over to http://www.securemac.com/.