launcH
a counteR-spy(waRe)
Mission
Mac security on a stick—in the forM of usB drives
preloaded with antivirus and data-theft prevention
apps—can guard the info you keep on your coMputer
froM all Manner of prying eyes and would-Be crooks.
by Ray aguileRa
your Mac is a pretty secure device
right out of the box. Because of
its Unix underpinnings, Mac OS X
isn’t vulnerable to the viruses and
malware that can wreak havoc on Windows. And
Macs are a less-attractive target for hackers
looking to infect the largest number of machines
with the least amount of effort, since Windows
PCs own a considerably larger chunk of the
market. But threats are still out there. Need
proof? Check out your firewall log to see what
kind of activity is coming through the network
pipes toward your Mac. Most of that traffic is
legit, but if you dig through even a little, you’ll
no doubt find more than a few sketchy entries in
there.
OS X’s built-in firewall does a good job of
protecting your computer from incoming threats.
In Leopard, check your settings by going to
System Preferences > Security > Firewall (Tiger
users will find their firewall settings in System
Preferences > Sharing). But plenty of security
risks exist that your Mac’s firewall won’t catch.
While viruses on the Mac aren’t the epidemic
that they are on Windows PCs, you can still pass
along viruses attached to outgoing email. And
for laptop users who frequently hook up to the
Net via public Wi-Fi hotspots, you never know
what kind of security is—or isn’t—protecting
that network. And what about your data?
All your precious documents are just sitting
unprotected, vulnerable to theft by bad guys.
One-stop options exist for locking down your
data and securing your network connection. We
ran Yoggie’s Gatekeeper Pico for Mac and the
IronKey Personal through a battery of tests to
help you choose the security device that best
suits your needs.
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