![]() Use it with an external hard drive or network-based Time Capsule. The guest account moderately increases the likelihood someone will connect the device to the Internet.Ħ. If you don’t leave a guest account and you activate FileVault and Firmware Passwords, then your Mac will essentially be a useless brick to the thief – and they might throw it away. If you turned on File Vault, the guest user account will be limited to Safari web browsing and not able to see your local files. Create a Guest User Account. The purpose of the guest user account is to make it more likely that the thief or someone downstream will login in to your Mac on the Internet and allow the IP address to be determined by your theft recovery software. Apparently, the Lojack team has success in getting police response to their software.ĥ. Sometimes victims of theft may get an IP address of their Mac but the police are not willing to respond to the data. I don’t have a strong recommendation for any of these however it seems that the Lojack team has an active effort in collaboration with U.S.-based law enforcement. The latter two surreptitiously photograph the thief using your computer. However, if you don’t set a firmware password – the hard drive can be easily reformatted – which will defeat these features. You can use your iCloud’s built-in Find My Mac capability (free) or purchase software such as Lojack For Laptops Standard $39 (annually), Orbicule’s Undercover (flat $49-$59 fee) or Prey (free or pro available) (also works for iPhones & iPads). The goal of theft recovery software is to get the Internet IP address of your laptop if the thief or eventual purchaser reconnects it to the Internet – I saw one statistic that said that 90% of stolen laptops reappear on the Internet within a few weeks. Note: If you ever sell or give away your Mac, you’ll likely want to remove this password or change it to something simple you can share with the new owner.Ĥ. Save this password somewhere safe or in 1Password or you won’t ever be able to modify the lower level configuration of your Mac. Once the Recover System app starts, open the Utilities menu and select Set Firmware Password. When the grey screen appears, hold down Command-R. This will also make it difficult for them to defeat anti-theft software we’ll describe below. Setting a firmware password will prevent anyone from reformatting your hard drive without your password. Update: See at bottom for more information about File Vault and theft recovery software.ģ. ![]() ![]() See System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> FileVault. Store a copy of the File Vault encryption key somewhere safe – such as a secure note in 1Password.įileVault also restricts the guest account you’ll set up below from accessing anything other than Safari to browse the web. ![]() By turning off automated login, FileVault makes it more difficult for thieves to access your laptop data without your password. If they take your hard drive out of your Mac, they won’t be able to easily decrypt your personal data from another device. File Vault encrypts your Mac’s hard drive and automatically turns off automatic login, requiring you provide a password to log in to your Mac. If instead you do not use a password-based login for your Mac and save all your passwords in your browser, a thief would very quickly be able to login in to most all of your accounts.Ģ. It also syncs passwords across multiple Macs, iPhones, iPads et al. 1Password makes it easy to avoid the habit of re-using passwords amongst multiple sites. I like that it also allows me to store secure notes. I’m a longtime user and strong advocate for 1Password. It won’t eliminate theft but it will greatly reduce the damage from such events and make it more likely that your device will return to you.ġ. ![]() Here’s a summary of what you should do to prepare your Macs right now for the possibility of theft. My house had also been broken into ten years ago. Over the past week, I’ve learned some additional things I could have done to prepare for this eventuality. Luckily, I have good insurance and had an up to date Time Machine backup. My residence was recently broken into (the alarm malfunctioned on entry and only went off as the thieves left) and two Mac laptops were taken. Let’s get started helping you to secure your mac: Thanks to The Loop and The Chronicle for promoting this post … follow me for updates. ![]()
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