Data and information these days seem to be more valuable than gold or precious stones. With the ever increase of activity in computer crime and Internet fraud, users want to secure their personal data on their computers more now than ever before.
Although MacOS X is an extremely secure operating system from hackers when you are using the Internet, the physical computer itself is not so secure. Files can be easily transferred off your Mac if someone has direct access to your machine and also if they have with them another Mac and Firewire cable.
I have created a tutorial where you can create a secure virtual folder so that you and only you can access them (and anyone else who knows the password come to mention it). You don’t need to buy any additional software, MacOS X has everything you need.
4 Responses to “How to create a secure directory on a Mac”
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April 6th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
MacOS X can be secure, but only if its applications are secure too - just look at the PWN2OWN competition that recently took place to show how secure some standard, first-party applications are! It’s just a shame Apple took as much care with Safari’s security as Microsoft did with Internet Explorer! Oh dear :-(
April 14th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Hello ScootP
Yes, I was sadden to hear that the Apple Mac unit at the PWN2OWN competition got hacked in next to no time, but what’s not widely know is that the hackers that accomplished the task did weeks of prep-work beforehand.
But the tutorial that I wrote is not directly related to the security of your Apple Mac; it’s more about creating a secure virtual disc image to store your important files. And if the Apple Mac can be hacked as quickly as reported, there is even more reason to do my tutorial isn’t there?
But in saying all this, no computer system is 100% secure, I think that you would agree with that.
I find it ironic that you imply that Internet Explorer is a more secure web browser than Apple Safari, are you serious? At least there isn’t a patch release for Apple Safari every week, what does that tell you? But that’s a whole other discussion lol :o)
April 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
Hi.
I didn’t say IE is more secure than Safari - I said that Apple is taking Safari’s security bugs/flaws (and fixes) far too casually.
And, I think you’ll find that Safari’s patch release cycle is starting to get much more frequent as more and more holes are found. Anyway, it’s not how frequent the updates are - it’s how long a vendor takes to resolve them and patch them up that’s the issue. Apple seem to take far too much time and ignores far too many zero-day bugs/flaws reported to them.
However, my major bugbear is Apple offering Safari as an “update” in their Software Updater utility, especially when it’s not installed! I hear Apple (and their users) complaining that Microsoft force unwanted software on users, but Apple are the king of hypocrites. It also installs bloody iTunes when all I have is Quicktime and that needs updating!!!
At the end of the day, I’m not pro-Microsoft, but I somewhat despise Apple for complaining about Microsoft (and PCs), and then do exactly the same thing!
If Apple sold their hardware and software by actual merit and quality, instead of slagging off the opposition, I might have been tempted to buy one. But until they ditch the arrogance and let their products to the talking, they can kiss my money goodbye!
April 21st, 2008 at 10:07 am
Following on from my previous post, I release that Apple have altered the Apple Software Updater software to show new software from updates, but the new software items are still selected by default!!! Next, I’ll get a Mac turn up on my doorstep, with Apple expecting me to pay for it, even if I don’t want the thing!!!
Nice one, Apple. 1/10 (up from it’s previous 0/10).