Security
How to Use Tor Browser on a Mac
Matt Cone September 18, 2021
Practically everything you do online with your Mac is logged and traceable back to your computer. Law enforcement officials, internet service providers, and even website administrators can find out what internet services and resources you accessed, when you accessed them, and what computer you used to access them with. If this lack of privacy sends shivers down your spine, you’ll be happy to hear that there is a way to preserve your anonymity on the internet while using your Mac.
Protecting Your Privacy While Using Apple Devices
Matt Cone September 5, 2021
Macinstruct has been a strong advocate of Apple and its products for over twenty years. Unfortunately, some of Apple’s recent design decisions have undermined our faith in Apple’s commitment to privacy. We’re now encouraging readers to protect their privacy by disabling certain Apple features. In situations where privacy is a hard requirement, it may be necessary to consider using non-Apple hardware and software. This article provides an overview of our recommendations and your options.
How to Set File Permissions on a Mac
Matt Cone July 24, 2021
Your Mac uses permissions to restrict access to applications, files, and folders. Utilizing this security control can help protect your data from unauthorized access. Whether you use your Mac in public places or share it with other users, you may want to change the permissions on your documents to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of your data. Of course, it can be difficult to strike a balance between convenience and security when using permissions.
How to Change Your Mac's Login Password
Matt Cone February 23, 2021
By default, your Mac is password protected at login, so you’ll need to enter a password to start using your Mac. If you ever want to change your Mac’s login password to something different, you can do so using System Preferences. It’s a quick and easy way to update the login credentials for your Mac. Here’s how to change your Mac’s login password: From the Apple menu, select System Preferences.
How to Monitor Your Mac's Firewall Logs
Matt Cone January 31, 2021
If you’re reading this article, you probably know that your Mac has a built-in firewall that should be turned on at all times. But how do you know that the firewall working, and how do you find out what’s happening behind the scenes? To check, you need to access your Mac’s firewall log - a file that contains a record of every event the firewall has processed. Here’s how to monitor your Mac’s firewall logs:
How to Configure Your Mac's Firewall
Matt Cone January 29, 2021
Every Mac ships with a built-in firewall — a service that can be configured to disallow information from entering your Mac. But what is a firewall, and why do you need to use it on your Mac? Firewall Crash Course Every time you request information from the Internet, such as a web page or email message, your Mac sends data packets to request the information. Servers receive the packets, and then send other packets back to your Mac.
How to Enable the Root User on a Mac
Matt Cone January 9, 2021
The most advanced tasks demand the most powerful user account of them all: the root user. When you log in as root, you have read and write privileges to every file on your Mac. This awesome power lets you override any account or permission restriction, but be careful! You could really mess things up if you don’t know what you’re doing. Warning: The root account is disabled by default. To prevent accidents, you should only enable and utilize the root account when you absolutely need it.
Enabling Firmware Password Protection on Your Mac
Matt Cone January 16, 2013
Firmware password protection can help safeguard your Mac and the data stored on it. With this feature enabled, users are prevented from booting from another startup disk or entering single-user mode — a command-line interface that can be accessed at startup. Firmware password protection is especially effective in enterprise or educational environments where administrators can secure the physical hardware but cannot be present to prevent tampering by employees or students. For example, unauthorized users can’t start the computer from a USB emergency drive when firmware password protection is enabled.
How to Password Protect Your iPad
Matt Cone May 2, 2012
Did you know that you can enable password protection and hardware encryption on your iPad? It’s an easy and effective way to protect your private data from prying eyes. After you enable password protection, users will have to enter a password to unlock the iPad or access certain iOS system settings, as shown below. There are a couple different reasons why you would want to do this. If you’re the only person who uses the iPad, you’ll want to keep your email messages, Safari history and bookmarks, and app settings safe and secure when you leave your iPad at home or in the office.
How to Hide Your AirPort Extreme Network
Matt Cone December 26, 2011
Own an AirPort Extreme Base Station? Congratulations! You have one of the most secure network devices in the industry. The AirPort Extreme’s WPA2 Personal and WPA2 Enterprise encryption options are the best available. But there’s another powerful security feature that you’ll want to enable on AirPort Extreme: The ability to “hide” the wireless network so that users can’t see it in wireless menu. (In technical terms, this is known as disabling or hiding the AirPort Extreme SSID.