5 ms·

Also, I've witnessed first hand someone come into a cafe I where I was working, walk up to another person who was on their laptop, snatch the open laptop as the

Also, I've witnessed first hand someone come into a cafe I where I was working, walk up to another person who was on their laptop, snatch the open laptop as the person was typing on it, and bolt out into a waiting getaway car. That laptop was fully open and logged into everything. This is obviously a rare case but it just goes to show that you can have pretty darn good security and there are still attack vectors that you won't be hardened against.

codetrotter 5y ago
I’ve been thinking it’d be neat to have a program running that watches the web camera continuously and if you look away from the screen then it locks the computer after 1 minute. And if you disappear from the image it locks it immediately. This would also immediately lock the computer in the case of someone snatching it from you, even though the main use case I had in mind is just for falling asleep and for leaving the room. Dunno if it’d drain too much battery. Also having the camera active indicator led glow all the time would be annoying. And it would also mean that you unfortunately no longer know if other software on your computer is recording your face while you are sitting there.
- ccheney 5y ago
  Perhaps tie into bluetooth instead. If your Watch or iPhone goes out of range, lock the machine.
  - poorman 5y ago
    Perhaps an accelerometer for when it's snatched quickly.
  - toxik 5y ago
    Should actually be pretty easy to implement
  - finnh 5y ago
    Unlox app does this - its primary feature is to use FaceID on an iPhone to unlock a mac, but it also has an AutoLock feature if said phone goes out of bluetooth range. The signal level threshold is configurable so you can keep it on a pretty short leash. (no relation, just a happy customer)
    - cdubzzz 5y ago
      That is intriguing -- but I don't love the "enter your computer password in the app" part. Can it be configured to _not_ do that -- i.e. only do the "AutoLock" part?
      - finnh 5y ago
        I believe so, yes. you might need to do a temp password dance to get it configured initially, but after that "lock only" should work fine.
  - 0x6A75616E 5y ago
    BetterTouchTool has a "Bluetooth LE device moved away".. Maybe that can detect Apple Watch moving away, and then lock or even shut down the computer.. EDIT: Confirmed. This works. In a few minutes, I was able to set it up so that if my watch moves about a meter away from the mac, it'll lock the screen. It supports any Bluetooth LE device.
    - r00fus 5y ago
      I had moved away from BTT for a while but would come back for this. Awesome. This stuff should be in macOS core.
- kgermino 5y ago
  I believe windows has/had a setting where you could automatically log out if a bluetooth device was disconnected. I'm not sure how hard it'd be to do something like that on a Mac but maybe I should look into it. I think "if my watch disappears, lock the screen" would be simple enough.
  - gotstad 5y ago
    It has this setting and defaults to using your phone as the proximity device. Not sure why else I should BT pair my phone with my PC.
- bombcar 5y ago
  I was thinking something tied to the accerometer - I know laptops used to have those when they had spinning disk. Sudden movement locks the screen.
  - flemhans 5y ago
    There used to be an "alarm" app for MacBooks that'd sound an audible alarm when the computer was moved.
- lutoma 5y ago
  For a while I had my laptop set up with a udev rule that would automatically lock it as soon as my USB Yubikey was unplugged. The Yubikey was on my keychain on a lanyard attached to my clothing. I mostly used that at CCC events where I was paranoid about forgetting to lock my laptop when I left it unattended, but it would also defend against that scenario pretty well.
xvector 5y ago
When I was in college, someone did this with my phone. Luckily, they gave it back a minute later - perhaps because I made a ruckus, and perhaps because they felt bad about robbing a student, who knows. Still, it made me pretty uncomfortable using devices in public after that. For all the effort we put into cybersecurity, our measures are trivially defeated by a common thug. Even YubiKeys securing all your accounts wouldn’t do much to protect you from this.
- alexhutcheson 5y ago
  Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/
  - dmix 5y ago
    how is that relevant here and not other comments here?
miles 5y ago
See BLEUnlock[1] for a simple Bluetooth proximity lock solution for macOS or BusKill[2] for a cross-platform wired solution. [1] https://github.com/ts1/BLEUnlock https://github.com/ts1/BLEUnlock [2] https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/2020/01/02/buskill-laptop-kill-cord-dead-man-switch/ https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/2020/01/02/buskill-laptop-k...

codetrotter 5y ago

I’ve been thinking it’d be neat to have a program running that watches the web camera continuously and if you look away from the screen then it locks the computer after 1 minute. And if you disappear from the image it locks it immediately. This would also immediately lock the computer in the case of someone snatching it from you, even though the main use case I had in mind is just for falling asleep and for leaving the room. Dunno if it’d drain too much battery. Also having the camera active indicator led glow all the time would be annoying. And it would also mean that you unfortunately no longer know if other software on your computer is recording your face while you are sitting there.

ccheney 5y ago
Perhaps tie into bluetooth instead. If your Watch or iPhone goes out of range, lock the machine.
- poorman 5y ago
  Perhaps an accelerometer for when it's snatched quickly.
- toxik 5y ago
  Should actually be pretty easy to implement
- finnh 5y ago
  Unlox app does this - its primary feature is to use FaceID on an iPhone to unlock a mac, but it also has an AutoLock feature if said phone goes out of bluetooth range. The signal level threshold is configurable so you can keep it on a pretty short leash. (no relation, just a happy customer)
  - cdubzzz 5y ago
    That is intriguing -- but I don't love the "enter your computer password in the app" part. Can it be configured to _not_ do that -- i.e. only do the "AutoLock" part?
    - finnh 5y ago
      I believe so, yes. you might need to do a temp password dance to get it configured initially, but after that "lock only" should work fine.
- 0x6A75616E 5y ago
  BetterTouchTool has a "Bluetooth LE device moved away".. Maybe that can detect Apple Watch moving away, and then lock or even shut down the computer.. EDIT: Confirmed. This works. In a few minutes, I was able to set it up so that if my watch moves about a meter away from the mac, it'll lock the screen. It supports any Bluetooth LE device.
  - r00fus 5y ago
    I had moved away from BTT for a while but would come back for this. Awesome. This stuff should be in macOS core.
kgermino 5y ago
I believe windows has/had a setting where you could automatically log out if a bluetooth device was disconnected. I'm not sure how hard it'd be to do something like that on a Mac but maybe I should look into it. I think "if my watch disappears, lock the screen" would be simple enough.
- gotstad 5y ago
  It has this setting and defaults to using your phone as the proximity device. Not sure why else I should BT pair my phone with my PC.
bombcar 5y ago
I was thinking something tied to the accerometer - I know laptops used to have those when they had spinning disk. Sudden movement locks the screen.
- flemhans 5y ago
  There used to be an "alarm" app for MacBooks that'd sound an audible alarm when the computer was moved.
lutoma 5y ago
For a while I had my laptop set up with a udev rule that would automatically lock it as soon as my USB Yubikey was unplugged. The Yubikey was on my keychain on a lanyard attached to my clothing. I mostly used that at CCC events where I was paranoid about forgetting to lock my laptop when I left it unattended, but it would also defend against that scenario pretty well.

xvector 5y ago

When I was in college, someone did this with my phone. Luckily, they gave it back a minute later - perhaps because I made a ruckus, and perhaps because they felt bad about robbing a student, who knows. Still, it made me pretty uncomfortable using devices in public after that. For all the effort we put into cybersecurity, our measures are trivially defeated by a common thug. Even YubiKeys securing all your accounts wouldn’t do much to protect you from this.

alexhutcheson 5y ago
Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/
- dmix 5y ago
  how is that relevant here and not other comments here?

miles 5y ago

See BLEUnlock[1] for a simple Bluetooth proximity lock solution for macOS or BusKill[2] for a cross-platform wired solution. [1] https://github.com/ts1/BLEUnlock https://github.com/ts1/BLEUnlock [2] https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/2020/01/02/buskill-laptop-kill-cord-dead-man-switch/ https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/2020/01/02/buskill-laptop-k...