Skip to Content

Secure your Mac: Crouching user, hidden folder

by Dave Caolo Sep 17th 2007 at 4:30PM

Here are a few very simple steps you can take to enhance your Mac's security - not exactly the U.S. Government's Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm, but enough to thwart many end-users.

Create a guest user account

Occasionally, someone will ask me, "May I quickly check my email on your computer? Just real quick..." (often these are Windows users who need an excuse to play with the MacBook Pro). "Sure," I say, but before I hand over the reigns, I switch to my guest user account. Here's how you can create one.
  1. Click System Preferences, then Accounts
  2. Click the small "+" icon at the bottom of the window
  3. In the sheet that appears, set up your guest account. I got fancy and named mine "guest," with a password of "guestpw," but you can choose whatever you like.
  4. De-select "Allow user to administer this computer."
Now, when someone "borrows" my computer to check their mail, they see an empty home folder, blank email client...the works. Even the rude ones who try to quickly peek won't find anything.

Create a hidden folder

Mac OS X automatically hides a folder that begins with a period. We can use this to our advantage and create a secret folder. However, it's not as easy as creating a folder in the Finder and naming it ".MyPrivateStuff." But it's not difficult, either.
  1. Open Terminal. By default, you're in your Home directory
  2. Create a new folder with a "." as the first character using the "mkdir" command, like this: mkdir .MyPrivateStuff
  3. Hit return. You're done!
So how do you access that folder from the Finder? Navigate to your Home folder (open a new window and click the little house in the left sidebar). Now, select "Go to folder..." from the menu bar. Enter the name of the folder you created, including the period (in my case, .MyPrivateStuff). Presto! Your hidden folder appears in the Finder window. Now populate it with your "secret" stuff (financial in nature, of course).

One caveat: The Finder "remembers" the last folder you visited with this method, so be sure to "Go to..." a benign folder before you walk away.

Combine the two tips

If you really want to get fancy, combine the two tips: Create a new user account that does nothing but store your secret folder(s).

Again, this isn't military-grade security, but simple techniques that you can use as an extra layer of protection for some of your stuff. Good luck.

View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

How-tos

Here are a few very simple steps you can take to enhance your Mac's security - not exactly the U.S. Government's Advanced Encryption...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

29 Comments

Filter by:
TC

How do you delete a hidden folder?

November 20 2007 at 10:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adrian C.

Umm terminal? sorry I'm new to mac. I don't quite get how make a hidden folder, whenever I try to make a folder in my main directory "four2err0r" in this case it says folders with a "." at the beginning are reserved for system files, and doesn't give me the option to still create it, am I doing something wrong?

October 11 2007 at 2:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve Denton

"No"

There you go newbies. All the security you'll ever need.

Surely, if you don't trust someone so much that you're worried about that someone accessing your porn stash, sorry, 'stuff', you shouldn't be letting that person use your computer. If you do, or you work somewhere where someone might look at your computer while you're away (possibly looking at the 'hard copy' of your 'stuff') then you shouldn't be allowed out alone, let alone own a computer or work somewhere where people think it's ok to snoop around in other people's computers while they're away. Get a new nurse, get a new job.

September 18 2007 at 4:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

Can you do this trick for a firewire drive? I'm not sure how to change to the external drive's directory in terminal [/dumb newbie]

Thanks!

September 18 2007 at 1:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevin Vahlbusch

Command>Shift>G Will take you to the directory to access the folder with your "stuff" in it. It is much faster than always opening the finder like described in the post. Just an FYI for a new users.

September 18 2007 at 11:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ben C

ahhh, good ole "security by obscurity"! Gotta love it...sigh...

September 18 2007 at 10:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DanRobinson

Now if you REALLY want to get sneaky, take that encrypted disk image file and change the extension from ',dmg' to, say, '.doc'

Then when your 'friend' double-clicks it, Word tries unsuccessfully to open it.

--Dan

http://tinyurl.com/2bshgk

September 18 2007 at 10:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cyril

Be careful !
Last folders are also remembered in (approximate translation, I use a french system) :
Go to > Last folders

But the list of last folders can be reset.

September 18 2007 at 4:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Saibai

That's not security, that's obscurity. Well, as Bruce Schneier would say, it will stop your little sister from viewing your files, but that's it.

September 18 2007 at 4:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anthony

You can also add or remove the front period using an FTP program. (You may have to enable show hidden files from a menu.)

September 18 2007 at 2:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.