OS X Tip: Lock That Screen
Before I started working day-to-day in a collaborative office environment, I never thought about security. Whenever I left my office, I would simply get up and go; allowing my PowerMac to naturally fall asleep to save energy. But when you're developing web content, and have all kinds of keychains unlocked and auto-fill form data in your web browsers, leaving your machine open to a floor full of people isn't a smart idea. Sure, I doubt anyone would really try to do anything malicious, like erase the root directory or buy a plasma screen off bestbuy.com, but you never know.
To my surprise, turns out OS X has native screen-locking built-in; though you wouldn't know unless you dug around. To enable it, open your Keychain Access utility in the Applications / Utility folder. Under the "View" menu at the top, select "Show Status in Menu Bar." A black padlock will appear in your taskbar in the upper right-hand corner. Close Keychain Access. Now when you click on the padlock, you have a "Lock Screen" option in the drop-down. Selecting it will cause your screen to fade to black and engage your screen saver. Click any key to open a login / password dialog box, and you're back in.
You can also require a password every time your screen saver is disengaged in the "Activation" tab of your Screen Effects preference window, but then you would have to enter your password each and every time your screen saver engages, like when you're on the phone, working on another machine, etc. With the above keychain / taskbar method, you only turn on protection when you know you'll be away from your Mac for an extended period of time - like at lunch or overnight.
Besides, you never need to shut down or restart your Mac because OS X is built on Unix...right? Right?
Comments
This was on MacOSXHints on September 1st, 2002.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20020901073230521
Posted by: William at May 17, 2003 12:12 PM
I use the screensaver lock with hot corners, but this is slightly quicker. I don't work in an open office, but I do have two curious little boys who are enamoured of my eMac and the last thing I want is for an application being developed to include bugs like { bbbbnbbmm, } in the middle of it.
I didn't get this computer (and therefore OSX) until December, so I appreciate the tip!
Posted by: Suzanne at May 17, 2003 1:02 PM
Also of note is the fact that the Keychain Access toolbar item also allows you to lock your keychains. While this may not mean much if your keychain password is the same as your user password, Good Security Practices recommend that you set your keychain password to something else. Then, if you don't want to lock your screen but want to make sure your keychain is secure, you can do so easily.
Kinda tangential, but a Good Idea nonetheless...
Posted by: Braz at May 17, 2003 3:30 PM
Dear oh dear, have I been sleeping? These are great tips. I should have picked on these earlier. But using a PC for past year and a half at work has apparently made me forget all about my poor mac at home ;)
Posted by: Dutchcelt at May 17, 2003 11:20 PM
Besides, you never need to shut down or restart your Mac because OS X is built on Unix?right? Right?
I find this to be very much true. Uptime on my system as of this morning: 12 days, 8 mins. Which pretty much coincides with the last OS X 10.2.6 update.
I never reboot except to install updates.
Posted by: JZ at May 19, 2003 9:23 AM
Great tip, thanks!
Posted by: briguy at May 19, 2003 12:51 PM
Well, it could be so usuable if it be secure. But it isn't. Even it the latest and greatest release of OSX (10.2.6) you can make the screen saver process crash by just resting on the space bar for a minute and filling the password field until it takes no more characters. Then hit return. Welcome home. I wonder why nobody thinks about changing this at Apple.
Posted by: Tim Pritlove at May 19, 2003 1:13 PM
Definitely something to pass on to Apple, Tom.
Great tip -- I rarely find new tips anymore, so I'm impressed. Did you find this on your own?
Posted by: Jon Bell at May 19, 2003 3:02 PM
What's the difference between this and using a Hot Corner...
The only benefit to this is that sometimes Hot Corners are activated accidentally. But how often does that happen?
Posted by: jeff at May 20, 2003 1:46 PM
It is also different from hot corners in that you can lock the computer on demand without setting your screen saver to lock.
Is there a quick keyboard shortcut like WinKey-L in Windows XP...
Posted by: eric at May 20, 2003 3:32 PM
Eric,
I'm not sure about WIN XP, but I do know in WIN 2000 if you hit {crtl} {alt} and {delete} at the same time, you will get a list of options, one of which is "Lock Computer". Click it and you will need to enter your computer password to get back in.
I use it all the time at work, for the same reasons Todd was describing. It's just good security.
Hope that helps,
Clint
Posted by: clint p at May 21, 2003 10:35 AM
I don't know about that space-bar hack -- I held the space bar for two minutes and didn't fill the password box? My kid OFTEN fills the password box with all sorts of characters, 'til the keyboard is complaining, but return doesn't do anything but give me an empty password box to try again?
Posted by: Suzanne at May 21, 2003 3:50 PM
True that you never NEED to shut down your Mac, but doing so can save some electricity. Sleep mode uses very little power, but the pennies per day add up to quite a few dollars over the life of your Mac. If I know I'm going to be away from my Mac for 8 hours or more, I shut it down. Not so much because I want to save money, it's just better for the environment.
In the old days, people told you not to shut down your computer, as lots of on/off cycles would reduce the life of the power supply. But that hasn't been true since the early 1990s -- I had a talk with an Apple engineer about it in 1991 or 1992 and he said you could turn a Mac or a PC off and on 5 times a day for 10 years and it wouldn't be a problem.
Posted by: Brad at June 3, 2003 10:10 AM
