Whether your Mac is brand new or you’ve owned it for years and never really worried about security, you should follow these eight steps below right now. As simple as they might be, these quick fixes can help to ensure that only reputable apps can be installed on your Mac, make it much harder for viruses or Trojans to infect your machine and stop a thief or even a set of curious eyes accessing your personal files – its essential stuff.
When it comes to picking a password, take heed from the top ten terrible passwords we’ve detailed. These are the most commonly used passwords around, so any thief or hacker will work through these first. As a rule of thumb, the longer your password is, the more secure it will be. The best way to do this is to ensure it contains more than one single word, a mixture of lower and uppercase characters, numbers and punctuation. For example, ‘A11Car5Dr!v3Fa5T’ will be far more secure than ‘Ferrari’ and much harder for a hacker or thief to guess or even decipher using a password cracking program.
Step-by-step: Eight steps to secure your Mac Machine
1. Users & Groups
Open up your Mac’s System Preferences and head to Users & Groups. From here you can change passwords for any user on your Mac.
2. Time for a change
Select your username and click on the Change Password button. You may have to click the padlock at the bottom first.
3. In with the new
Enter your old password once and your new one twice. We don’t recommend using password hints unless they’re very cryptic!
4. Need some help?
Clicking on the key icon next to the New password field will bring up Password Assistant which can generate a new, random password.
5. Keep it locked
Head into the Security & Privacy pane and check the Require password option – this is useful if you ever leave your Mac out in public.
6. Enable Gatekeeper
Select the option that only allows apps downloaded from the Mac App Store to run. This enables Gatekeeper and protects against rogue software.
7. Disable automatic login
Disabling automatic login ensures that whoever boots up your Mac will always have to enter a password to access any of your personal info.
8. Firewall it
Still in the Security & Privacy pane, click on the Firewall tab then Turn On Firewall. This helps to protect against threats like hackers and Trojans.
That’s all Friends… Follow these steps and secure your Mac Machine from Hackers.
