Should i turn firewall on my mac

However, it is recommended to have the firewall turned on for MacBooks to protect from hacker attacks when connecting to public networks. There are two types of firewalls: hardware and software. There are different things that firewalls can do, but generally, they designed to restrict incoming or outgoing network connections. When a firewall restricts or blocks incoming connections, it disallows applications running on your computer, accept requests from other computers.

With outgoing connections the process is reversed: local applications get prevented from sending requests outside. I installed some services that I could connect from my MacBook. The IT department used a scanning software which checks all servers for vulnerabilities.

With its help, they were able to find holes on my servers which hackers could employ to steal the data. Eventually, I restored those VMs, turned on the firewall, and cut all connections to the world. Now, the firewall would allow connecting to the servers only if the request was coming from my IP address, i. No, antivirus software designed to verify that the software that gets downloaded or runs on your computer does not have malicious code. There are many ways the malware can harm your computer.

They can infect other programs with bad code. They can encrypt the local disk and then request to pay in bitcoins for decryption. They can collect information such as credit cards and login credentials and transfer it to interested parties. Or they can change your browser to redirect to some sites and make money this way. In the worst case, they simply destroy your software and documents.

Not directly. If the malware algorithm is such as it needs to accept incoming connections from external programs, then having a firewall may break the malware. But generally, this is rarely a case. Firewalls do not check for viruses when one downloads software from the internet. Firewalls and antivirus applications do not replace or substitute each other. They protect from different security threats. Usually, it happens when someone finds a vulnerability on a particular version of Linux, it gets fixed, but not all administrators keep up with updates.

If the backdoor is not fixed or patched, the hacker can use the backdoor to get access to the machine and do anything he wants: delete all files, implant a keylogger, encrypt the disk, etc.

The good thing is that most hackers will not care enough about your secrets and spend time breaking your Mac. Unless you are celebrity chances that they care about you and your pictures are low.

However, most attacks are programmatic. Machines run software which finds vulnerabilities, and the programs run malicious code on their victims.

Can firewall protect against hackers? A firewall can prevent hackers from accessing the applications which accept incoming connections. For instance, if file sharing enabled on the Mac, then some firewalls can block contacts from unauthorized computers and allow file sharing only with authorized devices.

For greater control, you can select apps and services, and specify whether they can have access through the firewall. Open the Firewall pane for me.

If the lock at the bottom left is locked , click it to unlock the preference pane. Allow only specified apps and services to connect: Click the Add button , then select the app or service in the dialog that appears. Click the Add button under the list of services, then select the services or apps you want to add.

After an app is added, click its up and down arrows to allow or block connections through the firewall. Instead, simply use the option to save your passwords and OS X will automatically enter them where appropriate. There are some third-party password tools such as 1Password that provide expanded password management. A final couple of options for protecting your Mac include securing your computer when you have to leave it unattended and enabling remote access to it—not only to interact with it from afar, but also to track and lock it down, if needed.

The shorter the time interval you use in this feature, the better, especially for laptops. Just close the lid to lock the system. For Find My Mac, if your system is ever stolen you can log into iCloud. See How to track a lost computer with Find My Mac for more details.

Overall, while Apple can do very little to prevent your computer from being stolen, OS X does its best to protect the data it holds as well as offers a chance that you can pinpoint its location.