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Chapter 10 of “Take Control of Security for Mac Users” Available

So far, “Take Control of Security for Mac Users” has talked largely about preventing access to your Mac — using strong passwords, surfing the Web safely, enabling firewalls, and so on. But it’s time to look at the innermost layer of the security onion — the actual files stored on your Mac. In Chapter 10, “Prevent Data Loss and Theft,” Joe Kissell focuses on how you can prevent data loss and data theft.

Data loss is when you no longer have access to your own data, perhaps because of a file being deleted, overwritten, or corrupted. The way to prevent data loss is with excellent backups, preferably a tripartite strategy consisting of versioned backups, a bootable duplicate, and offsite backups.

Data theft, on the other hand, is when someone gains access to your data illicitly via physical access to your Mac. The solution here is encryption, either a full-disk solution like FileVault or a more focused approach in which you encrypt only sensitive information. Joe also discusses secure deletion, since deleted files can often be recovered otherwise.

If you’re just now getting started with “Take Control of Security for Mac Users,” note that the first two chapticles are available to everyone, but the remaining eight are limited to TidBITS members. Those kind souls receive other benefits too (like a cute apple icon when commenting on our site!), but what’s most important is that TidBITS members are the reason we’re still publishing. If you’re already a TidBITS member, log in to the TidBITS site using the email address from which you joined to read and comment on these chapters.

We have just two more chapters to go, and once we’ve wrapped them, the full ebook of “Take Control of Security for Mac Users” will be available for purchase by everyone in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket (Kindle) formats.

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