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Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X, Second Edition
Maximize your security and minimize your hassle while creating and managing Macintosh and Web passwords!
Suffering from password overload or anxiety? Set your mind at ease with friendly assistance from Mac expert Joe Kissell! You'll learn how to match your personality type and risk factors to a personal plan for choosing and managing your Mac, Web, and iPhone/iPod touch passwords efficiently and securely. You'll also learn how to handle:
Passwords on your Mac (login, master, root, firmware, email, AirPort, keychains)
Interactions between your Web browser and your stored passwords
Syncing passwords between Macs, and to your iPhone or iPod touch
Use Apple's Keychain Access password manager
Getting started with a third-party password manager
Planning for what to do if your software (or your brain) forgets key passwords
Solving password-related problems
Save 20% on 1Password, Joe's favorite password management utility!
More Info
Contents & Intro
What's New
FAQ
Blog
"Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X is outstanding. It's very thoughtful and well presented. I've spent more time than the average person thinking about this topic, and still I learned some things from your book." —James Tummins
Read this ebook for advice on these password-related issues:
Coming up with secure passwords that are easily remembered and typed
Keeping track of impossible-to-remember passwords
Setting up sensible passwords that control access to your Mac
Reducing hassle by making your Mac automatically log you in to Web sites
Balancing security with the annoyance of frequent password entry
Understanding the purpose of the common Mac keychains
Finding and viewing the passwords that your Mac has tracked for you
Syncing passwords between different Macs (or with an iPhone/iPod touch)
Planning for disaster—what if you're injured and someone else needs your passwords?
Deciding whether you should memorize your passwords, write them down, or have your Mac store them
Book Info
120 pages
Version 2.0
Updated 29-Jul-09
2.0 MB download
ISBN: 193367167X
Free sample with Table of Contents, Introduction, Quick Start, and section starts.
About the Author
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS, contributes frequently to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.
If you’re overwhelmed with too many passwords to remember or concerned that your passwords may not be safe, help is on the way. This book tells you everything you need to know about choosing, remembering, and managing passwords of all kinds—with special attention to those used when accessing Web sites with a Mac, iPhone, or iPod touch. This book was written by Joe Kissell, edited by Caroline Rose, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.
Introduction
I have a love-hate relationship with passwords. Well, mostly hate. I understand that passwords help keep my computer, my private data, and my money safe, but for many years, every time I was asked to come up with yet another password (for a Web site, a Mac OS X user account, or any of a dozen other purposes), I'd grumble. I felt, as many people do, that it took too much mental effort to produce and remember all those passwords.
On the other hand, I didn't want to take the easy way out—choosing a simple, memorable password and using it everywhere—because I worried that I was putting my valuable information at risk. I didn't want to sacrifice security for convenience.
In addition, I lacked a clear understanding of how to go about selecting good passwords, and I was unsure what the security implications were for each of the contexts in which passwords are required. For example, Mac OS X requires passwords for a bewildering array of purposes: logging in, securing a computer's firmware, encrypting home folders, checking email, connecting to MobileMe, and more. What are all those passwords for? Do I need to use them all? What sorts of passwords can I use in which places? Even computer geeks like me wonder about these things.
I decided to get to the bottom of this whole password business once and for all. This book is the result of my research and experiments. In it, I show you how to choose good passwords without overtaxing your brain. I explain when you need heavy-duty passwords and when you can get away with less secure ones. I cover all the kinds of passwords an average Mac OS X user will encounter, and describe how and when to use them. And I discuss a variety of tools and methods you can use to simplify your interactions with passwords. In short, this book enables you to take control of your passwords once and for all!
To keep this book from being unreasonably long, I've made some assumptions:
I'm writing for ordinary computer users, not technical wizards or security experts. If you're looking for detailed information on encryption algorithms or the like, this isn't the place.
Along the same lines, I assume that you're not protecting state secrets or billion-dollar fortunes with your passwords. For that sort of security, you'll need more password mojo than I offer here.
I only skim over certain topics related to passwords, such as user accounts, wireless networks, keychain synchronization, and file sharing. For more information on these topics, I refer you to other Take Control titles.
For this, the second edition of Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X, I've taken a long look at what has happened since the book's original publication in 2006. I've significantly modified my thinking on a few topics, adopted some new techniques, and begun to use hardware and software products that weren't available when I wrote the first edition. And I've watched Mac OS X evolve through a couple of major revisions, seen Apple complete its shift to Intel processors, and witnessed the birth and growth of the iPhone and iPod touch. So I've brought the book up to date with the latest in technology and my current advice.
This version of the book is written primarily for users of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. As I write this in mid-2009, Apple hasn't yet released Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, but it's just around the corner, and I've used pre-release versions of the new operating system extensively. Although I can't yet guarantee it, I believe most of the advice in this book should apply equally to Snow Leopard, perhaps with some minor changes in the names or positions of certain controls or other similarly small (and fairly obvious) differences. Nearly all of this book also applies to Tiger (10.4)—again, with some minor differences in wording and the like, which I've called out in most cases. However, I no longer cover earlier versions of Mac OS X at all.
To keep up to date with any significant changes to this book's advice, click Check for Updates on the cover.
Passwords Quick Start
You can read this book in any order; I’ve included plenty of cross-references to help you find the information you need. However, I urge you to begin with Assess Your Password Needs and read at least up through Choose a Password Strategy, to get valuable background information that will help you understand everything else better. Beyond that, skip to whichever section addresses the issues you’re most concerned about.
Gauge the level of password security you likely need by reading Assess Your Password Needs .
Read Learn Password Basics to learn the fundamentals of password security, including the difference between passwords that truly protect something and those that merely identify you.
Decide on the best overall approach to password management for your needs: read Choose a Password Strategy.
Learn painless ways to create your own great passwords in Generate Good Passwords.
In Understand Mac OS X’s Passwords, find out how to choose and use all the major kinds of passwords in Mac OS X, including login, firmware, and email passwords.
Read Use Keychain Access to learn about a tool Apple includes with Mac OS X that lets you secure, repair, and optimize the keychains in which your passwords are stored.
In Use Passwords on the Web, learn how to select, store, and fill in user names and passwords for Web sites.
If the password programs included with Mac OS X provide too little oomph, turn to more-capable utilities from other developers. See Use Third-Party Password Tools.
Read Keep Your Passwords Secure for tips on protecting your passwords from thieves and hackers.
Version 2.0 is a major revision to the book, with many changes, both small and large, scattered throughout. The book has been thoroughly updated with information on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, has all new graphics, and contains numerous small corrections and adjustments. Among the other significant changes are these:
A new section, Choose a Password Strategy, that outlines two broad approaches to thinking about and using passwords
Division of the section previously titled “Generate Good Passwords” into two parts: Learn Password Basics, which provides background information, and Generate Good Passwords, about the nuts and bolts of creating passwords (with or without the help of software)
Instructions on changing an administrator password even if you don’t have a Mac OS X Install disc: Reset an Administrator Password
Coverage of password managers that sync data between your Mac and iPhone or iPod touch in Use Third-Party Password Tools
A significantly expanded discussion of 1Password
Revised and expanded discussion of Other Password Managers
Information on using the UPEK Eikon fingerprint scanners: Biometric Devices
I haven't bought this ebook or 1Password. To get the 1Password discount, what should I do?
After you buy the ebook, look on the last page of the ebook for the 1Password coupon, which you can click to jump over to the Agile Web Solutions Web site and access the discount on 1Password. The discount appears in the first screen of the cart, so you go through one or two clicks before you see the discount. You should see it before you enter credit card info.
If you are running Snow Leopard, take note that 1Password 2 has a 32/64-bit compatibility issue with Safari under Snow Leopard. There's also a 1Password 3 beta that you may wish to run under Snow Leopard. See a post on the Switcher's Blog on the Agile Web Solutions site for more details.
Ask a Question
Feel free to ask us if you have a question about this book!
Send Us Your Comments!
How could we not publish such kind words? If you'd like to send us your comments (good or bad, though we hope they're all good), just click the Feedback link on the cover of your copy of the ebook. Be sure to let us know if we can publish your comment. Thanks!
1Password, Joe's favorite password management utility, is going through growing pains during the transition to Snow Leopard. Agile Web Solutions is working hard to complete a shipping version of 1Password 3, but at present there are a few (small) quirks involved in running 1Password in Snow Leopard. For advice, see one of these two resources:
If you are already running 1Password 2 and plan to (or have recently) updated to Snow Leopard see my TidBITS article from September 1, 2009, Getting 1Password Working in Snow Leopard.
We have it on good authority that Joe Kissell does leave his Parisian garret occasionally for fresh air, bread, and cheese, but you'd never guess it given how prolific he's been lately. In his latest ebook - a 120-page, brand-new second edition of Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X, you can read Joe's latest advice for choosing and managing the ever-growing list of passwords that we modern Mac users are expected to handle.
After helping you match your personality and risk factors to how long and complex your passwords ought to be, Joe walks you through all the details of setting up your Mac so it has secure passwords without requiring you to type them more than necessary. He explains the Mac's Keychain Access password management utility, and clues you in on what a keychain is and what the common ones are that you'll likely find on your Mac. He also covers setting and using Web passwords (with specifics on how passwords are stored in eight different Web browsers), how to sync passwords between different Macs and to an iPhone or iPod touch, and how to handle password-related problems.
The ebook costs $10, and it comes with a coupon for a 20% savings on 1Password (Joe's top pick for a third-party password management utility).
If you bought the first edition during 2009, look in your email for a free download link to the second edition. If you bought the first edition prior to 2009, check your email for an update notice or open your PDF to the cover (page 1) and click the Check for Updates button to access a 50%-off upgrade offer.
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS, contributes frequently to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.