Little Snitch
Product Review
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Price: $24.95
Pros: A reverse firewall of sorts: lets you easily see what is leaving your computer, keep tabs on all your apps, keep them from phoning home without your knowledge
Cons: None
Product Rating
Excellent
by Ron Schoedel, AAUG Member
I recently learned about Little Snitch as I have been attempting to learn more about internet security, and employing a strategy to make my Mac as secure as I can, because my data is important to me as is the integrity of my computer’s files and my privacy. Sometimes you almost wonder if you can be too paranoid. I don’t think you can! All it takes is one leak and you can find yourself picking up the pieces of your damaged credit rating, compromised by shady persons who trade in stolen personal information such as credit card details, names, dates of birth, bank account data, and the like.
I always recommend a firewall (such as the one built in to Mac OS X) to filter all incoming data to your Mac. But what about the data that LEAVES your Mac? Do you know all the information that is outbound from your computer? Not likely.
Most applications these days are built to automatically check for updates. This is accomplished “in the background”, behind the scenes, by polling a web server for update information. Most of the time you have no knowledge of what your applications are doing in this respect. I don’t consider myself paranoid, but I do think knowing what your applications are doing is information worth having. Little Snitch makes certain no network traffic is sent from your Mac without your knowledge or approval. Much of this web traffic is safe and nothing to worry about, and Little Snitch lets you decide which of it is appropriate and which you’d rather not have your apps sending. (more…)
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