09/07/2016
SECURITY TIPS
1. Lock down the Internet
Set up a firewall (obvious).
If you want to really manage connections, try Little Snitch (and buy it if you feel like it; it is at least an eye-opener about what's connecting to your computer and what your computer is sending out).
Use an updated, modern browser (I would go with Firefox), with plugins like Ghostery/AdBlocker/HTTPSeverywhere, that limit the amount of malicious stuff that could come in through your browser. You do not actually have to click download and install to get a virus anymore on an Apple product :(
Check your extensions, defualt search engines every once in a while. New extensions and changed default search engines are really obvious indicator that some unwanted monkey business is taking place on your system.
Obviously, dont install software you don't trust and avoid piracy (if you can afford it). Pirated software is rife with malicious stuff even in the Apple Universe.
Also a no-brainer, avoid public networks if you can, and don't set your device to auto-connect to open ones (as they might by default--I haven't bought a new machine in a while, but they used to do that I believe).
Turn off any sharing/bluetooth stuff you don't intend to use under Sharing.
2. Avoid Physical Media Vectors of Attack
Don't use USB drives on a lot of different machines. They are an increasingly common vector for infection. In fact, try not to use them. There are methods of sending large files and the internet is pretty fast. If you can email it to yourself, do it. With email, you can be sure that nothing is piggybacking on the drive; and your email client should run some antivirus on the file itself. So that's better.
Don't charge your phone from your home computer's usb drive. Phones are increasingly affected by viruses, just from browsing on 4g networks, and can transfer them to your machine nowadays. You can back your contacts up on the cloud, if you have some data-driven desire to connect the two devices. Take advantage of the cloud, and your much-faster charging wall charger.
If you feel the need to use your home computer or (much worse) your work computer to charge your phone on your desk, then come home, and plug that into your home computer... perhaps consider buying a nifty data-only usb adapter from Amazon. Documents at work get passed from hand to hand, inside and outside the company... yeah the local network can be full of problems... and IT departmetns tend to be behind the 8 ball on security. You can't even necessarily install things on a work computer, to even make sure that it's kosher. Yeah. This is an idiot proof solution.
3. Utilize Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware Software -- The Belated Meat of this Post
Malware: no one program works best. As in the PC Universe, you need to run a few to catch everything reliably. I like Adware Medic (and apparently so do Apple Support folks from my troubleshooting sessions) and BitDefender's Adware Removal Tool. They have each caught programs the other one missed, and they are super lightweight-fast, and free.
Anti-Virus. Just like with Malware, you want to use more than one program. I can't actually recommend two. I have a half dozen, and I don't like most of them. One which I would use is ClamAV. It's not rated the best by reviewers (maybe because nobody is paying them to review it well), but in my exprerience, it has caught more infected files than the other ones. If you download the version from their website, you can schedule it to auto-update and auto-run--for some reason the mac store version doesn't seem to have this feature.
4. Lock the Screen, Use A Strong Password
Sleep your screen when you leave your desk, and set it to require a user password after a few seconds of sleep (System Preferences --> Security & Privacy). Also, under Power Settings, set your computer to go to sleep after it is idle more than a few minutes. This will cover you decently, if you walk away from your machine in the office, and forget to sleep it.
Install/use Caffiene to toggle the sleep/lock behavior on and off, when you want to watch a movie or need to give a presentation. It's easier. And easier than manually changing the time-to-sleep when you need to do it, and therefore you're way less likely to get fed up safe practices and switch your sleep time back to "never."
5. Familiarize Yourself With Running Processes and Learn to Use the Command Line
You don't have to be a ninja about it. But you can take note of running processes in the activity monitor, and google new ones that pop up with fair ease. You would do the same thing on a PC really...
If you really need to be certain that you don't have some kind of keylogger (some companies install them on work machines and you're not necesarily allowed to remove them), you will probably need to pick up some familiarity with the terminal. Which is a whoooole different topic. $Man ps. and... well, take things from there lol.
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