In my previous article I described some of the problems with the approach most people use to secure their data. The problems were all essentially the same: security theatre. In this article I'll outline 5 things that you can do to ensure that your data is safe and increase the likelyhood that you'll be able to get your computer returned.
The advice in this column isn't meant to be prescriptive. Instead, read through the suggestions and make sure that they make sense to you, and for your situation. If you have backups and don't need to be bothered with ensuring the returnabilty of your computer by all means, tighten your machine down. If you're like the rest of us, read on.
1. Backup Your Data -- Offsite
This one's a no-brainer. Backing up your data is one thing, but making sure that you have a good copy of it off site is another. If someone breaks into your house a backup isn't going to be much good to you if it's sitting on the external hard drive conveniently located next to your computer. It doesn't matter if you use one of those automated off site backup solutions like Backblaze or Carbonite, or if you use an old fashioned sneakernet like me. Just make sure you have a recent copy of your data off site.
2. Make Your Computer as Inviting as Possible
If you're used to a higher level of security, this tip might not make a ton of sense. It's true, your computer will be wide open if you do this. While you may want to lock down your computer for the most part, in order to ensure the safe return of your computer you'll want me make it as easy and inviting as possible for a thief to use your computer. If you make it too difficult either they'll never use it, or they'll find someone to wipe it clean so that they can start fresh. If they do the latter you'll never see your data again.
So what do I mean by "make your computer as inviting as possible"? I mean that you should:
- Set up your account to automatically log in.
- Remove a power-on password
- Remove disk encryption
By doing these things you'll ensure that anyone that sits down at your computer will be able to use it for whatever purposes they want. It also means that everything on your computer will be wide open to anyone that wants access to it. To fix that you're going to want to:
1. Lock your keychain
2. Use encrypted disk images
3. Lock your Keychain
The Keychain Access application on the Mac is the unsung hero of password management. Applications use it to store credentials for web sites you go to and services you use. The Finder uses it to store passwords for remote file shares, logins for wireless access points, etc. By default the password to unlock your keychain is synchronized with your login password, and the Keychain remains unlocked while you're logged in. These defaults optimize for user experience, not necessarily security. But hey, at least these can be configured.
To change these settings your going to want to open the Keychain Access application and open its preferences. From the preferences window select the First Aid tab and uncheck the last 2 checkboxes: Set login keychain as default, and Keep login keychain unlocked.
By changing these settings you will need to enter your password whenever an application wants to access some data within the keychain. This will certainly be more annoying than the default settings, but your passwords and anything else stored in the keychain will remain safe should your computer fall into the wrong hands.
4. Use Encrypted Disk Images
As I discussed in a previous post, encrypting your entire hard disk is a one way street. Your data will be safe if your computer gets lost or stolen, but it also means that the computer is completely useless to anyone that finds it. But what if you have sensitive data on your computer? Clearly you want that data to be secure, you just don't want blanket security across the entire hard drive. That's where encrypted disk images come in.
Disk Utility will allow you to create encrypted disk images to store any sensitive data. You can make them virtually any size you want, and use either 128- or 256-bit AES encryption. As of later releases of Mac OS X you can also use a sparse image format. Sparse formats allow you to create a disk of virtually any size, but it will only take up as much physical space on disk as the files that are contained within it. For example if you had a 500MB sparse image but only put 50MB of data in it, the image on disk would only be about 50MB. The best format to use a whole other discussion. But for our purposes, it doesn't matter which one you pick, just make sure its encrypted.
Once you have an encrypted disk image you can then store all of your files within the image. Images can be configured to be mounted automatically upon login by adding them as a login item, but if you don't need to access those files very frequently, its best to leave the images un-mounted until they're needed.
With all of your sensitive data stored in encrypted disk images you can be assured that your data will be safe if your computer gets lost or stolen.
5. Install a Snooping Tool
Lastly, to have any hope of getting a stolen computer back, you're best bet is to install a snooping tool. These tools take screen shots and pictures with a computer's camera, report location and IP information, and do many other things to snoop on a thief or help get your computer back. An excellent and free tool that does this is Prey.
Once installed, Prey sits idle until you log into the web site to report your computer as lost or stolen. From there you can configure it to snoop on the thief at selected intervals. By using information gathered by Prey and the help of police many people have been able to retrieve their stolen computer.
