Mac® Security Bible

7.9. Remote Management

Apple Remote Desktop (www.apple.com/remotedesktop) is a commercial program that allows an administrator to perform a variety of administrative and maintenance tasks on another Mac — on the same network or elsewhere on the Internet. In addition to File Sharing and Screen Sharing, Apple Remote Desktop lets an administrator install software remotely, run Automator actions, get detailed reports of the remote computer's usage, and search remote computers using Spotlight, among other activities.

For Macs that are managed remotely, this feature must be enabled, and the administrator should decide what level of access is appropriate. If your Mac isn't administered remotely using Apple Remote Desktop, you should leave this feature turned off.

To enable an administrator to connect to and manage your Mac using Apple Remote Desktop, follow these steps:

1. Choose System Preferences to open System Preferences and then click Sharing to open the Sharing pane.

2. If the lock icon in the lower-left corner of the pane is in the locked state, click it, type an administrator's username and password, and then click OK.

3. In the list on the left, click the On check box next to Remote Management. A dialog box with a number of options, as shown in Figure 7.14, opens.

4. Click to select the check ...