A feature that many people enjoy on OS X is the lock option, which lets users remotely set a PIN for their Mac. However, iCloud's Find My iPhone service requires a password to enter the system upon booting.

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How safe is the PIN that iCloud offers? Enabling a feature like locking a Mac may sound like a great idea until one delves into it further. The PIN required is only four digits, which means that there are only a possible 10,000 options to cracking the PIN number. Apple does try to deter users or anyone from actually trying 10,000 times by locking users out of entering the PIN number through progressive wait times. Ways around this are by restarting the system and trying again.

While in theory this sounds like a safe and secure way to protect data and files, there are ways around it. The larger issue lies in the OS X lock option is a hardware based lock. If someone were to simply remove the hard drive from their Mac and place it into another successfully, the lock can no longer protect the data.

CNET author Topher Kessler gives three very useful options to users on what they can do to protect their data and files. According to Kessler, these three options joined together would secure your Mac as much as possible. The options are as follows:

For users wanting a little extra security on their Macs, Kessler advises to lock things up.

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