Quote Originally Posted by Nurse Marcia View Post
This is a great thread! Thanks, WM.

Sounds like there are some very experienced people giving advice, so I have a question for you.

If your computer is protected with a 9 character strong password to access it, does that provide enough security to prevent a thief from even getting to your data if the computer is stolen?
To be honest most operating system passwords (your log in screen) are not all that secure. Even a half assed hacker with the right software on a USB key can bypass that. That being said Mac operating system is a bit better than windows. It was built on a UNIX type architecture (BSD). Your best bet... hard drive encryption with at least.... I stress at least... 128 bit encryption. There is a caveat to that... you need a good fast processor in order not to bog down your system and lots of memory. For example... I have an i7 third gen, 32 gigs of ram and a solid state drive. Another option is a finger print reader (get a good one). It hooks to your USB and you need your finger print to unlock. Another but more difficult option is an authentication USB key. Basically you cant boot the PC unless the USB authentication key is in your USB port. Kinda like a chip car key. But as someone said... a good hacker is going to get through most things. But a good hacker is hard to find (again the media would have you think you are always in danger). A hacker generally doesnt hack unless they have a reason too. Hacking is not a simple task.