Easy Mac Hacks: Add Extra Security to Your Mac

Every Monday we show you how to do something quick and cool with Mac OS X. Sometimes it's a tutorial on a lesser-known feature, other times it's a trick that uses built-in functionality such as Terminal — either way, these simple tips can make life better and easier, and they don’t require any special knowledge. All you need to do is follow the instructions!

By default, the Mac comes with a built-in utility that lets anyone reset the password on your user account. This is done in case you lose access to your OS X account, but it can become a vulnerability if your Mac gets into the wrong hands. In this article, we'll show you how easy it can be to add a hardware password to your Mac to prevent unwanted access like this. Continue reading to learn how it's done.

To add a hardware password to your Mac (which will be required whenever you access another bootable partition or drive on your Mac, including the recovery partition), perform these steps:

• Boot into the recovery partition by holding down Command + R when booting up your Mac.
• When prompted, select your language.
• Select Utilities > Firmware Password Utility.
• Select "Turn on Firmware Password..."
• You'll see a dialog that lets you add a password, then confirm the password.
• Click "Set Password."

After doing this, you'll be required to specify this password before booting into a disk, or booting into the recovery partition on your Mac.

You can secure your OS X files and account information even further by enabling File Vault from within your OS X user account. To learn more about enabling this feature, follow this guide.