For reference and some study, there are Apple documents for download
on the subject of securing your OS X and your computer. These are fairly
thorough and while reading into the depth in several of these, you can see
how one can control and limit access to the OS X.
Also, limiting physical access to any computer would obviously conclude
some of the issues as either impossible or very likely to occur, per situation.
And you can control several of the situations by preparation & awareness.
Familiarity with several levels of Mac OS X use are expected when setting
up and maintaining the various kinds of security and accessing the OS X
at those levels required to implement many of the best secure features.
And those are conditional, since some aspects of total security won't apply
if the computer is open to several kinds of real-world and real-life realities.
With reason, the solutions set forth in these documents are very exacting
and can prevent certain kinds of issues. Prevention does help; so does
having a secure backup of data on your portable computer, elsewhere.
The old adage, "plan for the worst and hope for the best" applies...
• Mac OS X - Security Configuration
For Version 10.4 or Later - Second Edition:
http://images.apple.com/server/macosx/docs/TigerSecurity_Config021507.pdf
There are newer Leopard 10.5 security configuration guides that can be
also be of use to Snow Leopard users, though named Leopard 10.5.
• Mac OS X 10.5: Leopard Security Guide (3.4MB)
http://images.apple.com/server/macosx/docs/LeopardSecurity_Config20080530.pdf
• Second Edition (5.4MB)
http://images.apple.com/server/macosx/docs/LeopardServer_Security_Config_v10.5_2ndEd.pdf
{And as previously inferred, this category of information is above casual reading.
Perhaps with a replacement computer destined for use at work, you may find
some of these strategies helpful as a preventative approach to securing a Mac.}
Good luck & happy computing! 🙂
