5 Tips to Keep Your Mac Safe While Traveling

by John Clarke Freelancer

Leaving your laptop at home while traveling may be tempting, and you’d want to work with your tablet or phone, but sometimes you can’t get around it. So, when you take your MacBook along with you on a trip, you’d like to follow these tips for security and ease.

You may want to take your MacBook on your trip for blogging or photo editing or for covering your adventurous excursion on your website. Whatever may be the reason, you’d not want any lack of safety on the Mac from your side to ruin your traveling experience.

1. Enabling ‘Find My Mac’

In the case that your Mac is stolen or you lose it, enabling the ‘Find My Mac’ option will help users to retrieve the device.

To enable this built-in feature, follow the steps below:

Go to System Preferences, and select iCloud.

Here, ‘Find My Mac’ option is listed.

Under this option, users can perform a remote wipe, make it sound an alarm, or track its last location.

2. Backup with Time Machine

Before leaving home, it is a prudent step if you consider backing up your Mac. MacOS has an inbuilt feature of Time Machine that enables users to back up their data quickly and easily.

3. Go for password protection

If you haven’t already encrypted your Apple MacBook with a password, then doing it before going on an excursion is a reasonable step.

The following steps will guide users in setting up a password:

Open ‘System Preference.’

Open ‘Security & Privacy’.

Go to the ‘General’ option.

Press the ‘Change Password’ option.

> In addition, checking the ‘Require password immediately after sleep or screen saver begins’ button will ensure that the device gets password protected after the screen saver begins.

4. Setting up a Custom Lock Screen

This feature enables a user to set up a custom message in the case of theft or loss. The message prompts up once the laptop lid is opened.

To set up a Custom Lock Screen

Open ‘System Preference.’

Open ‘Security & Privacy’.

Open the ‘General tab.’

Check the button which says ‘Show a message when the screen is locked,’ and after that type your custom message.

5. Enable FileVault

A FileVault will take your data and device security to the next level.

FileVault encrypts the whole data, making it impossible for a thief to access the data present on your device.

To set up this feature:

Go to ‘System Preferences.’

Open ‘Security & Privacy’.

Select ‘FileVault’.

Select ‘Turn on FileVault.’

There are many other ways you can adapt to secure your Mac while on a trip. Some of these include:

Use a VPN.

Turn on Airplane Mode when not using a network.

Use the original Apple peripherals.

Set up a Firmware Password.

John Clarke is a self-professed security expert; he has been making the people aware of the security threats. His passion is to write about Cyber security, cryptography, malware, social engineering, internet and new media. He writes for McAfee security products at mcafee.com/activate.

Source : 5 Tips to Keep Your Mac Safe While Traveling