{"id":135,"date":"2008-04-24T09:14:45","date_gmt":"2008-04-24T16:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.intego.com\/?p=135"},"modified":"2012-11-14T17:44:34","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T00:44:34","slug":"how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/","title":{"rendered":"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you work on your Mac, you think you are protected by your user account&#8217;s password. Well, savvy users know this is not the case; it&#8217;s easy to boot any Mac from a Mac OS X installation DVD and reset the password of any account. But not everyone worries about hackers carrying around Mac OS X discs with them. <\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not the only way to reset a password, though. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.macosxhints.com\/article.php?story=20080414140636495\">A hint was published<\/a> on the Mac OS X Hints web site  explaining how to do this without an installation disc, but simply from booting into &#8220;safe mode&#8221; and issuing a few commands. This means that any hacker can access all the files on your Mac, regardless of your password.<\/p>\n<p>We at Intego have long been aware of this kind of problem. We know that Apple&#8217;s password protection is not very secure, and, while you can apply an <a href=\"http:\/\/support.apple.com\/kb\/HT1352\">Open Firmware password<\/a>, there are other ways to protect your sensitive documents. Intego created <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/fileguard\/\">FileGuard<\/a> for just this reason. With FileGuard, you can create virtual safes that provide unbreakable protection for all your sensitive files. The passwords you use with FileGuard&#8217;s safes cannot be reset by a hack or trick; only you can open the safes you create. And with 256-bit encryption, even the NSA can&#8217;t get at your files.<\/p>\n<p>If you have sensitive files on your Mac, don&#8217;t entrust them to Apple&#8217;s password protection; you really need serious security that will prevent anyone from accessing your files. Use Intego FileGuard for those files that merit such protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you work on your Mac, you think you are protected by your user account&#8217;s password. Well, savvy users know this is not the case; it&#8217;s easy to boot any Mac from a Mac OS X installation DVD and reset the password of any account. But not everyone worries about hackers carrying around Mac OS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When you work on your Mac, you think you are protected by your user account&#039;s password. Well, savvy users know this is not the case; it&#039;s easy to boot any\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account? - The Mac Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you work on your Mac, you think you are protected by your user account&#039;s password. Well, savvy users know this is not the case; it&#039;s easy to boot any\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Mac Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-04-24T16:14:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-15T00:44:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter James\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Intego\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/intego-organization-logo-for-google-knowledge-graph-875x875-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/intego-organization-logo-for-google-knowledge-graph-875x875-1.png\",\"width\":875,\"height\":875,\"caption\":\"Intego\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Mac Security Blog\",\"description\":\"Keep Macs safe from the dangers of the Internet\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/\",\"name\":\"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account? - The Mac Security Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-04-24T16:14:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-15T00:44:34+00:00\",\"description\":\"When you work on your Mac, you think you are protected by your user account's password. Well, savvy users know this is not the case; it's easy to boot any\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d0c16bd0a4dd8f82d91204f400c8d116\"},\"headline\":\"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account?\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-04-24T16:14:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-15T00:44:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":264,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Security &amp; Privacy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d0c16bd0a4dd8f82d91204f400c8d116\",\"name\":\"Peter James\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0626bfb4ada576ba5aa775322329ad47?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0626bfb4ada576ba5aa775322329ad47?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter James\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/author\/peter\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"description":"When you work on your Mac, you think you are protected by your user account's password. Well, savvy users know this is not the case; it's easy to boot any","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account? - The Mac Security Blog","og_description":"When you work on your Mac, you think you are protected by your user account's password. Well, savvy users know this is not the case; it's easy to boot any","og_url":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/","og_site_name":"The Mac Security Blog","article_published_time":"2008-04-24T16:14:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-11-15T00:44:34+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter James","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#organization","name":"Intego","url":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/","sameAs":[],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/intego-organization-logo-for-google-knowledge-graph-875x875-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/intego-organization-logo-for-google-knowledge-graph-875x875-1.png","width":875,"height":875,"caption":"Intego"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/","name":"The Mac Security Blog","description":"Keep Macs safe from the dangers of the Internet","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/","name":"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account? - The Mac Security Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-04-24T16:14:45+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-15T00:44:34+00:00","description":"When you work on your Mac, you think you are protected by your user account's password. Well, savvy users know this is not the case; it's easy to boot any","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account?"}]},{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#webpage"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d0c16bd0a4dd8f82d91204f400c8d116"},"headline":"How Secure is your Mac OS X User Account?","datePublished":"2008-04-24T16:14:45+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-15T00:44:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-secure-is-your-mac-os-x-user-account\/#webpage"},"wordCount":264,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Security &amp; Privacy"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d0c16bd0a4dd8f82d91204f400c8d116","name":"Peter James","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0626bfb4ada576ba5aa775322329ad47?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0626bfb4ada576ba5aa775322329ad47?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter James"},"url":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/author\/peter\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4VAYd-2b","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7281,"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/7281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origin.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}