It's when any of your precious data ventures outside the localized protection of your Mac that things start to get dicey - and that happens every single time you connect to the web. Furthermore, all of the data that lives on your macOS device's hard drive is secured with FileVault 2 (Opens in a new tab), a full-disk program featuring XTS-AES-128 encryption (Opens in a new tab) and a 256-bit key. 'Isn't macOS famously secure by default?' You're not wrong, actually (Opens in a new tab): All Macs and MacBooks ship with built-in antivirus software that blocks and removes malware, and any apps you download from the internet are swabbed for malicious code by Apple's Gatekeeper (Opens in a new tab) tool. Some have likened it to 'a secure tunnel (Opens in a new tab) for web traffic,' 'a personal bodyguard (Opens in a new tab) for the internet,' and 'an anonymous middleman that does your browsing for you.' But in the most basic sense, it's a service that keeps you totally incognito on the web by masking your online activities and making it seem like your connection's coming from somewhere you aren't. Without getting too deep in the weeds - we've already done so in a previous article - a virtual private network, or VPN, is an encrypted connection between your Mac and a private, remote server. ( Here's the full review of the new iMac.)īut for everything the new iMac can do, there's one thing you won't find under its hood - or that of any Apple-made computer, come to think of it - and that's some sort of technology that can protect you from online snooping. 'With its fun aesthetic, compact size, smooth performance, and more,' it basically 'begs to be used anywhere but the office,' says tech reporter Brenda Stolyar, who bestowed Tim Cook's latest M1 machine with a coveted Mashable's Choice Award after taking it for a test drive. In case you haven't heard, Apple's new 24-inch iMac (Opens in a new tab) is an absolute dreamboat of a desktop - and those colors? *chef's kiss*

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