poor postdoc

1. Make a backup! Now! Time Machine makes this stupid easy.  Buy an external hard drive (or better, two) and set them up today. People working with select agents need to consider hardware encryption for this external drive (http://is.gd/g4IYe andhttp://is.gd/g4IZN and http://is.gd/g4J0D).  Encrypted hard drives may even be good for home use, if you worry about break-ins. Time Machine will support 2 different hard drives – envision one at home, one at work.  That way, when one building gets wiped out by God/Mother Nature/the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you still have a backup. I recommend a hard drive 3x disk capacity of your laptop.  Backups with Time Machine are incremental, so it needs more disk space than the amount of files you have stored on your computer.  The best sources for cheap hard drives (my opinion) are NewEgg and OWC. The simplest to use are the bus-powered drives – meaning no separate power cord. Unplug your backup hard drive from all power when not in use.  This protects you from sudden electronics-crippling-power-failures.  This is the main reason I’m not recommending Apple’s Time Capsule. Time Machine will remind you when it needs to backup.

Enabling Time Machine: Connect your external drive.  Open System Preferences. Click on Time Machine (4th row down):

Turn Time Machine on (big slider button). The rest is obvious.

2. Logout every time you use your computer or set your screensaver to require a password immediately on sleep.  This controlled in the Security preference pane. If you look at the earlier screenshot of the System Preferences, you will see “Security” in the upper row. Click the General tab.  Set as you need – my last Federal employer required our computers to lock after 5 minutes of idle time. Should be the same for those of you working with DHS/FBI/DIA stuff in the lab.

3. Encrypt your home directory. OS X includes FileVault.   The process of encryption can take few hours, so be prepared to walk away. Without FileVault, and if I were a malicious person, even if you have your password turned on, I can still attach your Mac to mine and use “target disk mode” to pull your entire home directory off your computer.  FileVault will prevent me from opening that home directory.

4. While we’re in the Security preference pane. Turn on your firewall. For some reason, this is not enabled by default.  A firewall blocks incoming connections.  You will also want to click the “Advanced” button and turn on Stealth mode. The applications you see in my screenshot have asked for permission to penetrate the firewall and I have agreed to let them do their thing. Stealth mode sounds sort of evil, but it means your computer will not respond to pings from other computers on the network (it looks like you’re not there).

5. Buy a cable lock.  This is especially important for those of us hauling our laptops to our labs/offices, which are open most of the day. Tryten (http://www.tryten.com) makes some of the best locks out there.  The Targus Defcon lock has been defeated with fire and a can of beer.

6. Track your stolen laptop. There’s two pieces of paid software I am aware of: Undercover and LoJack.  I am currently disappointed by Undercover – it still reports my laptop in Pasco and I’m not there.  I have not used LoJack.

7. Finally, a note on iPhones.  Enable the Passcode Lock and “Erase All Data”.  After 10 attempts to break into your iPhone  this will return your iPhone to purchase state.  You can find this setting in “Settings” -> General.  If you pay $99/year for Apple’s MobileMe, you can also use “Find My iPhone” which can do a remote erase. Of course, there are alternatives: 6 Ways to Track and Recover Your Lost/Stolen iPhone.