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Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to this: the shortcut key for locking the screen is Cmd+Ctrl+Q. There's also the possibility of configuring a Hot Corner for this.

Didn't know this, I was using an Alfred command instead. Thanks!

I was using some other workaround as well. The shortcut is new since Mojave! :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#32

If you're paranoid: - Full Disk Encryption - Use Little Snitch - Don't use iCloud - Disable SSH except for your account - Turn off remote login - Run developer software in Docker containers

How does FireVault work with Google cloud ?. I have a google cloud folder which is synced with my local drive. Now if I enable Firevault, it will encrypt all the data... but im not sure what will happen to the Google Drive folder on mac. How will google drive manage my encryption then.

FileVault is encryption at the disk level; you unlock at startup. Unless you have other encryption methods for files or directories, once you're logged in, they are unencrypted as far as Google Drive or any other app sees it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#34

My primary concern is someone physically stealing my Macbook or iMac. They are personal devices and the content on them would not be much of interest to others, foreign governments or other entities. I have Prey[1] installed. On both devices, I have "admin" credentials taped to the back. The account is actually a locked down user-level account with very little authority, other than being able to get on wifi/browse th…

I've donee something similar too, with with a script that'd continually poll a website upon user login and findmymac.

The only issue is a firewall on the router side, but, that's a highly targeted attack then.

You also can't set a bootup/EFI password.

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#35

The thin I do that I think is most important is use Little Snitch ( https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html ) to track/block/approve incoming and outgoing network requests. It's how I caught a new Seagate external hard drive making calls to Baidu and Google. https://fosstodon.org/@lukewrites/100907932236227641

  > When it loads, the disk is unwritable; you have a choice of
  > a Mac executable or a Windows executable.
That's ridiculous. How do they justify that?

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#36
post #18

Shameless plug since it's relevant: We built a Slack bot [0] that shames (in good humor) people in the office who leave unlocked laptops unattended. We had a similar system at Twitter where we would tweet a certain codeword on unlocked laptops and it was very effective in stopping that behavior. [0] https://sniped.app/

We, at Accenture, invite our colleagues 5-15 invitees to a cake celebration, from the person's unlocked laptop and Outlook a week into the future.

It's pretty hilarious because the person usually go through with it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#37

If you're paranoid: - Full Disk Encryption - Use Little Snitch - Don't use iCloud - Disable SSH except for your account - Turn off remote login - Run developer software in Docker containers

Genuine question: Is iCloud any more insecure than any other cloud service? I was thinking of shifting a lot of stuff to it.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#38

My primary concern is someone physically stealing my Macbook or iMac. They are personal devices and the content on them would not be much of interest to others, foreign governments or other entities. I have Prey[1] installed. On both devices, I have "admin" credentials taped to the back. The account is actually a locked down user-level account with very little authority, other than being able to get on wifi/browse th…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#39
Little Snitch [1], 1Password [2], macOS Filevault, {BlockBlock, RansomWhere, OverSight, ReiKey} by Objective-See [3]

Few years back I was a big fan of Little Flocker, which now is part of F-Secure as XFENCE [4]. But haven't used it since its rebranding, anyone using it anymore?

[1] https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/ [2] https://1password.com/ [3] https://objective-see.com/products.html [4] https://campaigns.f-secure.com/xfence/

Re: Ask HN: How do you secure your Mac?

#40

My primary concern is someone physically stealing my Macbook or iMac. They are personal devices and the content on them would not be much of interest to others, foreign governments or other entities. I have Prey[1] installed. On both devices, I have "admin" credentials taped to the back. The account is actually a locked down user-level account with very little authority, other than being able to get on wifi/browse th…

Neat. I read once about someone who had their photo booth folder set with a folder action to automatically post photos to Instagram (or something). When their Macbook was nicked their feed got spammed with photos of the thief and their friends.
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