My 14 year-old cat has beaten iBook security. Please help.

Could it be that the cat is simple triggering a reboot, the system logs in automatically, the cat does its evil things, and the system triggers the screen saver after a period of inactivity?

1.25 Ghz Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Have any of you nutjobs thought of keeping your stupid cat off the keyboard? Maybe try taking a piece of cardboard and shooting some nails through it, then lay it over your keyboard, so the spikes are sticking up. Maybe your cat won't lay on a keyboard that was designed for typing.

Seriously, your keyboard wasn't designed for your cat to sleep, go buy a cat bed and a heating pad to put under his/her blankets, cat and small animals love the warmth.

I'm still little concerned that while a solution has been found by installing a thrid party app (Keyboard Cleaner) that the problem itself was never deduced. Personally I feel it's always best to understand what the problem is before adding band-aid solutions or work-arounds. I posted the following diagnostic process before, but responded mid-thread (newby to .Mac) so it may have been missed:

However, should I be worried that persons could be
screwing with my desktop and files while my iBook is
locked up in the screensaver? Is that a legitimate
concern?

It is very possible that the screensaver only blocks a person from being able to see any sensitive data and that the keyboard/trackpad still remains functional while the output to the screen is shut down.

To test this:
-Place the cursor over the System Preferences icon in the dock and then invoke the screensaver lock.
-Try clicking the trackpad while the screen is locked. (You could even try blindly using the trackpad to move the cursor side-to-side and enter random clicks)
-Unlock the screen and see if any applications have opened up.

If you find open apps then you will know that the screensaver lock only blocks visible output, not keyboard/mouse inputs. This would then confirm it is not a matter of a cat subverting your security, but rather a case of the user believing its function is supposed to do more than it actually does. In this case, Keyboard Cleaner would be an obvious and appropriate solution.


Quad G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I'm still little concerned that while a solution has been found by installing a thrid party app (Keyboard Cleaner) that the problem itself was never deduced. Personally I feel it's always best to understand what the problem is before adding band-aid solutions or work-arounds. I posted the following diagnostic process before, but responded mid-thread (newby to .Mac) so it may have been missed:

However, should I be worried that persons could be
screwing with my desktop and files while my iBook is
locked up in the screensaver? Is that a legitimate
concern?

It is very possible that the screensaver only blocks a person from being able to see any sensitive data and that the keyboard/trackpad still remains functional while the output to the screen is shut down.

To test this:
-Place the cursor over the System Preferences icon in the dock and then invoke the screensaver lock.
-Try clicking the trackpad while the screen is locked. (You could even try blindly using the trackpad to move the cursor side-to-side and enter random clicks)
-Unlock the screen and see if any applications have opened up.

If you find open apps then you will know that the screensaver lock only blocks visible output, not keyboard/mouse inputs. This would then confirm it is not a matter of a cat subverting your security, but rather a case of the user believing its function is supposed to do more than it actually does. In this case, Keyboard Cleaner would be an obvious and appropriate solution.

Dude, you gotta think on an animals level. Every time you leave the room, pee in a circle around your iBook/territory. If this doesn't work, pick up some fox's urine.

Peace.

It's pretty much a common stance that Macs (yes, even 10.4.9) are easy to exploit, and it's proven to be more true every week.

Are you for real?

Or just stirring the fertilizer?

Yeah, I was also worried about the 3rd party,
band-aid solution (although props to Keyboard
Cleaner.. who I fully endorse for containing a
cat-induced security disruption, by the way) to try
to fix a problem which I felt presented a greater
concern. Anyway, I'm still just loving all the
suggestions and I'm trying them all. Learned a bunch
over the last 48 hours.

Thanks to all.

Just so you know, I picked up this thread while reading Digg: http://digg.com/apple/Whycats_can_never_be_trusted_Cat_beats_iBooksecurity

Seems you've become a bit of a poster boy for Mac security, or lack of it, punditry.