OS X Mountain Lion Bible

Identifying the Four Key Vulnerabilities

So what are the areas of vulnerability? There are four key ones:

• The Mac itself: Someone could steal your Mac (or you might lose it and it is never returned by the person who finds it) to get a free or salable computer and any installed applications.

• Your personal data stored on the Mac: This includes your passwords, account logins, and so on. Given how many of us have iTunes accounts tied to our credit cards, there's more at stake than you might think.

• Your business or other valuable data stored on the Mac: This data could be of interest to an unethical competitor or acquaintance. It could include sales lists, financial records, draft contracts, legal records, medical records, music and video files, or love letters.

• The Mac environment: This refers to the Mac, OS X, and your applications. These can be hijacked to turn your Mac into a “zombie PC” that generates spam and other malware unbeknown to you, damaging other computer users—particularly your friends, colleagues, and family members listed in your contacts. Or your Mac can simply be hijacked to steal its resources to help run something unbeknown to you, whether for good or ill.

A very determined thief can probably get past all these defenses, but very few thieves are that determined (unless you work for the CIA or a similar type of organization). The key is to layer your security defenses: If someone gets past one layer, there's another one to get past as well. This will dissuade ...