Mac Users: How do you keep secure and private?

LMSInc.

LMSInc.

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Being a PC guy for nearly 2 decades, I got accustomed to the shortfalls of Windows systems in regards to privacy and security, and thus, eventually the steps necessary to secure my shit.

Now that I made the switch to a Mac full-time (and regret not doing so much sooner), I am at a loss.

The obvious things stand: Lock the router down/enable IPS/etc, set good passwords, use a firewall, scan your shit, use Chrome/FF with the right extensions, etc. but I am wondering if anyone has any further suggestions.

What I have so far (speaking purely about the machine itself) is
Firewall: OSX firewall disabled, but IPS firewall enabled on Router
Outbound firewall: Little Snitch
Password security/storage/encryption: 1Password
General Maintenance: CleanMyMac and CCleaner (both using 3-pass wipe settings)
Rootkit: OSXrkhunter and Sophos anti-rootkit
Virus/malware: Sophos Anti-Virus
Other: OnyX

I use time machine and have set it up on an OSX encrypted partition, but I'm not sure how good the built-in encryption on OSX actually is.

I've disabled the root account, and I use a moderate password for user account settings, and a solid one for the encryption.

So any other suggestions/recommendations/tips would be welcome.

Also, I have, for many years now, used TrueCrypt full-disk encryption, which I loved. I still use it in many forms/layers on external storage, but I feel naked without the main HDD fully encrypted, as it doesn't do FDE on Mac systems.

In trying to enable the OSX disk encryption option for the main drive, I am told I must re-install OSX and restore from a TM backup in order to do so. Considering this is a hackintosh setup and it took me days to finally get it working flawlessly, I do NOT want to start over again. I simply can't afford the downtime.

So, any suggestions? Any extra tips?

I'm not a security expert, and while I have no problem locking down Ubuntu/Deb boxes quite well (plenty of in-depth instructions on the net for that), I have no idea how to securely lock down this one.

I feel sort of the same way I do about my iPhone. I love it, but it offers no real security. Whereas something like a BlackBerry at least tries to fend off prying eyes/hands, I feel like Apple is open to anyone with even mild skills.
 


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helobartleby said:
You can enable legacy filevault, which only encrypts your home folder. You wont have to reinstall the OS but it looks like kinda a pain. I am on a hackintosh too and was looking at trying this out:

Encrypting an user home directory using Legacy FileVault in OS X Lion | maiux' experiments

Also you can check out espionage and knox for folder/image encryption.
Click to expand...

FileVault 2 (came out with Lion) encrypts entire drives / partitions.


And just out of curiosity, what do you need so much security for?
 
Sounds like you've pretty much got it. I've been using a mac since the 10.0 days and security has never been a problem. Unless you're guarding NSA secrets just turning on the internal firewall, and using little snitch will probably be enough. You can use encrypted backups and shit, rootkit hunters, etc... but seriously, no body wants your MFA sites MySQL dumps that bad.

As for security being mild, I call BS. Have any of your hacker friends attempt to root a Mac box. Especially one running Lion.

OS X 10.7 represents a major overhaul, said the researchers, who spent the past few months analyzing the OS. The most important addition is full ASLR. Short for address space layout randomization, the protection makes it much harder for attackers to exploit bugs by regularly changing the memory location where shell code and other system components are loaded. Other improvements include security sandboxes that tightly restrict the way applications can interact with other parts of the operating system and full disk encryption that doesn't interfere with other OS features.


“It's a significant improvement, and the best way that I've described the level of security in Lion is that it's Windows 7, plus, plus,” said Dino Dai Zovi, principal of security consultancy Trail of Bits and the coauthor of The Mac Hacker's Handbook. “I generally tell Mac users that if they care about security, they should upgrade to Lion sooner rather than later, and the same goes for Windows users, too.”
Click to expand...

Major overhaul makes OS X Lion king of security ? The Register
 
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