What you need to know
- Pareto Security is a Mac app that checks to make sure your machine is as secure as it could be.
- 36 different security checks are carried out so you'll always be told if there's a feature you haven't enabled yet.
Keeping your Mac as safe as possible is something we should all be doing, but sometimes it's easy to miss a setting that leaves a machine open to attack. That's where Pareto Security comes in so handy — because it looks at all of the Mac's security settings and potential attack vectors and warns you if you've left one wide open.
The Mac app, which is available for download from the developer website, is available for a one-time fee of $15 and is also part of the Setapp bundle as well. No matter how you pay for it, Pareto Security is well worth checking out. You might be surprised at what it will find.
As an example, it turns out my Mac's firewall was turned off until about 5 minutes before I began writing this post. I had no idea until I ran a Pareto Security check and it warned me. There are other things it isn't happy about as well. Apparently, my screensaver is set to come on after more than five minutes, which could be a security risk. I have AirPlay enabled, too. FileVault is disabled, too. I should probably get around to changing that.
It isn't just me, either. here's Pareto Security founder Neyts Zupan explaining his own story:
A few months after I bought my new Air, I was checking some settings, and I noticed with horror that FileVault was turned off. When I started thinking of all the travel I did and where I left my Mac, I broke out in cold sweat. I have important company documents on my computer that would be easily accessible if anyone got their hands on it.
Zupan had a colleague run the app while it was still in alpha mode and they found the same thing, too. Just imagine what you'll find if you install Pareto Security on your machine.
Pareto Security currently checks 36 different aspects of your Mac to make sure it's as secure as possible, with more on the way. You can learn more about the app and the kinds of things it can prevent on the website, too. Remember, the best Mac is a secure Mac!
