How to Make Your Mac as Secure as Possible

Being one of the most advanced computer devices, Mac offers abundant useful security & performance features to users.

These devices come installed with the latest security mechanism to keep your data and security intact. It is also a common belief that it is hard to infect a Mac device in comparison to any other system.

And it is not said without any reason as Apple tries its best to keep its products as safe as possible. While most security features come built-in on your Mac, still you need to take care of multiple other factors to make your Mac as secure as possible.

In this article, we have discussed some of these simple tips & tricks that will help you keep your data & system safe.

Top 7 Tips to Keep Your Mac Secure

Update Software:

Outdated software always remains an on target of cyber criminals as they can easily breach your system security with known loopholes on old software. You get regular system updates automatically from your device manufacturer.

Here you should be quick to download & install these updates as soon as possible. With each software update, you get security patches, bug fixes, additional features, and more.

Thus, it is the best option to install all updates instantly as soon as you receive them. Furthermore, if you have missed any of these critical updates, then you can even install updates manually by following a few simple steps.

To update the software manually on your Mac, go to System Preferences > Software Update. Here, you can click on “Automatically keep my Mac up to date” to keep Mac automatically install all updates. This simple trick will help you improve security and speed up your Mac instantly.

Set Non-Privileged Account:

This is another simple trick that will help you avoid unnecessary security troubles. In addition to the standard administrator account, you should set another default account for your daily activities. Here, you should set an administrator account with a strong password. This account could be used when you need to update keychains, modify or update software, and other crucial things.

The second non-privileged account could be used for daily activities. Here, you can set some limitations with this default account so that no one can make changes in your system settings when you are away. Also, protect this second account with a strong password. To set an unprivileged user account on your Mac, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups.

Download from Reliable Sources:

Another quick security tip is to set measures on your system to avoid downloading from risky third-party developers. Here, Apple regulates third-party developers to make it mandate for them to create an account with Apple and provide apps that verify their own authenticity. During the process, identified developers need to use code signing with Apple to ensure their apps are safe to download.

Though it is not again a full-proof mechanism as anyone can get a developer account and sign their app still, Apple can revoke the developers’ permissions & certificate in case it finds something malicious or suspicious. To enable this setting, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General.

Here, you can set Allow Apps Downloaded from to Mac App Store or Mac App Store and Identified Developers. If you stick to security measures, then you can enable “Mac App Store” only to download apps tested & approved by Apple itself. Though, going for “identified developers” isn’t that risky you can opt for.

Use FileVault:

This built-in method of securing your data is widely used by Mac users as it encrypts your data to keep it safe from people who have access to your system. This smart feature doesn’t affect your system performance negatively, thus it is advisable to enable this feature on your Mac.

To enable this feature, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault and turn it on.

In addition to this feature, you should also ensure the data you backup using Time Machine or on cloud servers should remain encrypted and password protected. While most online cloud storage services provide encryption as a default feature, you can create a strong password and enable two-factor authentication for better security.

Manage Location Settings:

Allowing location permission could be useful when it comes to your comfort, but here you may need to trade convenience for privacy. If you want Siri or Spotlight to offer accurate local weather conditions (or similar cases) then you need to allow location permissions.

While these are considered being safe cases, still you can’t allow location permission to any random app or developer as they may take nefarious use of your location permissions. To avoid this, you should manage location permissions by heading to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Location. Here, uncheck Enable Location Services.

Stop Your Mac’s Suggestions:

This is an advanced security suggestion you should follow. Here, you get automatic suggestions when you do different searches on your Mac. Spotlight Suggestions were introduced in OS X Yosemite to make your queries quick and seamless.

Though, this feature is not considered safe from users as Spotlight queries send certain data to Apple and above all to Microsoft’s Bing search engine as well. Thus, it is advised to disable this feature on your Mac. To do this, go to System Preferences > Spotlight > Search results.

Here, uncheck Spotlight Suggestions and Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Look Up. In addition to that, you should also change settings in Safari to disable Spotlight Suggestions. To do this, go to Preferences > Search within the Safari and uncheck Include Spotlight Suggestions.

Use Advanced Mac Cleaner Tools:

The next best solution to keep your Mac security intact is to use advanced Mac tuneup tools. These smart tools work as an advanced solution to help you deep clean your Mac and remove all security threats effectively. You can use these tools to clean junk files, manage rogue apps, uninstall unnecessary apps, protect privacy, and more.

Conclusion:

Following the above mentioned simple tips & tricks, you can easily manage to keep your Mac and data safe. While built-in security features help you considerably, using third-party tools in another effective solution you can follow for enhanced & comprehensive security.

Here, we have covered some basic to most advanced tips to keep your Mac as secure as possible. If you know more such security tips for Mac, then feel free to comment in the section below.

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