The old saying of waiting for one bus and then three turning up at once, or bad things happening in three are all clichés, but sometimes they do seem to apply.
In July, as people enjoy the longer summer evenings, we will often get around 3 calls about Macs that have been damaged through wine spillages. This month, however, three of our customers have been the unfortunate victims of theft. As if being the victim of crime is not bad enough, they have the extra worry of losing a machine with all of their data on it.
Most companies nowadays have a good backup system, which allows them to quickly recover their data and ensure that they get up and running again. But what about the data that is stored on the stolen machine itself? Since the days of El Capitan, macOS has automatically encrypted your data via FileVault. This means that, to access your data, the nasty thief will need either your admin password or a recovery key.
However, a further step of security that you can implement is to utilise the Find iPhone app. Either via your iPhone or on a different Mac, you have the ability to lock or erase your stolen Mac. The steps below outline the process that you would follow if you were doing this on another Mac, but the process is almost identical on your phone.
1. Sign in at www.icloud.com.
2. Open the Find iPhone App
3. Once the Find iPhone App has located your devices, you will be presented with a screen like the one below. Click on ‘All Devices’ and choose which device you want to locate.
4. Once you have clicked on the device you want to locate, you will be able to Lock or Erase the Mac.
If the Mac is turned off or is offline, you can still use Find My Mac to request a notification when it’s located, or lock or erase your Mac remotely. The next time your Mac is online, the actions take effect.
The more eagle-eyed amongst you might have seen that you can also select the option to play a sound. This option is fantastic if you have left your Mac around the house or the kids have hidden it. The sound it projects is a little ear piercing, but at least it will allow you to find which sofa your kids have hidden your new Mac under!