My New Mac, Snow Leopard Edition, 2nd Edition

Additional Ideas for Password Protecting Your Macintosh

Passwords won't keep out a determined intruder, but they will keep out the casual intruder or troublemaker.

Still, if you're among the truly paranoid, consider creating a separate, dummy account (see Project 16) and fill it with seemingly important files so that if someone breaks into that account he or she won't know to look elsewhere.

You can turn on the automatic login feature to load this dummy account any time someone restarts your Macintosh in an attempt to gain access. A dummy account (also called a honeypot), can mislead intruders. If you create several accounts and password protect them all, an intruder would need to know each account password, but he or she would also need to know ...