Book Image

The macOS User Administration Guide

By : Herta Nava
Book Image

The macOS User Administration Guide

By: Herta Nava

Overview of this book

Apple is pushing the capabilities of its technologies to help users achieve high performance, including improvements in its OS running across all Mac systems, macOS, and new technologies such as M1 Silicon chips. This book walks you through macOS from a system administration and support point of view, exploring its latest features. The book starts by explaining macOS architecture, installation, and startup processes to enable you to get started with the OS. You'll learn how to manage users and discover techniques for user security and privacy. Moving on, you'll get to grips with the macOS file system and learn to manage disks, volumes, and partitions for effective file management. Most of the examples covered in this book are from an administrator's perspective; however, when relevant, a standard user's perspective is also presented. You'll find illustrations for Mac systems running macOS 11 (Big Sur), and when necessary, for macOS 10.15 (macOS Catalina). Finally, you'll explore advanced topics such as networking and using command-line tools for administration tasks. By the end of this macOS book, you'll be well-versed with macOS features, administration tasks, and best practices. You'll also be able to apply the concepts to increase your chances of success in obtaining Apple certifications such as Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP).
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
18
About Packt

Understanding User security

In the previous sections in this chapter, we addressed the technologies, tools, and features that help you protect the system, hardware, application environment, and data. Adopting measures to protect user security and privacy are as important as those we have seen so far. Although we covered a great deal on user security and privacy, through the use of passwords, the keychain system, and more, in Chapter 5, Managing User Security and Privacy, there are additional tools and features you can take advantage of to enhance user security in a more general way. In this section, we explore these macOS features designed for that purpose:

  • Two-factor authentication
  • Login Options
  • Firewall
  • Screen Time
  • Find My
  • Guest account
  • Family sharing

Let's examine each of these options.

The iCloud Security Code and two-factor authentication

The iCloud Security Code and two-factor authentication provide additional protection for your Apple ID account. This way, your Apple ID...