Many security breaches—even high-profile ones—stem from simple oversight. There’s one spot in macOS that has long been particularly susceptible to such lapse: the Sharing pane of System Preferences. In it, you can enable a wide variety of sharing services, some of which could allow another user to access your Mac remotely. They all let you limit access to particular users, but passwords can be stolen, accounts can be compromised, server software can have bugs, you you might just have the security set improperly. For safety’s sake, if you’re not using a sharing service, turn it off. The most important ones to disable when not in use are Screen Sharing, File Sharing, Remote Login, Remote Management, and Remote Apple Events. I also caution against leaving Printer Sharing and Internet Sharing on unnecessarily.
Unless you actually rely on these specific features, most people do not need any of them turned on
Many people enable Printer Sharing because they want to share a printer. But any WiFi or network-enabled printer already has this built-in. macOS Printer Sharing allows you to effectively convert a USB printer to a WiFi printer.
(Featured image by Morgane Perraud on Unsplash)
Further help
If you are an existing customer who needs help with this or if you have other questions, or if you are in San Francisco and interested in becoming a client I invite you to book an appointment with me. Otherwise, you may wish to contact Apple Support or find a local Apple consultant.
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