Mac® Security Bible

4.4. MobileMe Settings

MobileMe is Apple's suite of online services, including email, file sharing, web hosting, and synchronization of numerous kinds of data. Although you can use MobileMe with a Windows PC, an iPhone, or an iPod touch, it works especially well on a Mac in conjunction with features integrated into Leopard and Snow Leopard (and specific Mac OS X applications, including iLife and iWork).

I wrote an ebook all about MobileMe, which contains extensive information on all the service's features. You can find Take Control of MobileMe at www.takecontrolbooks.com/mobileme.html.

You can configure each Mac OS X user account to tie into a single MobileMe account. (You can access more than one, but only one at a time can take advantage of certain account-wide capabilities, such as syncing.) Because MobileMe settings are user-specific, many of the security implications tied to a MobileMe account are determined by the security of your Mac OS X user account. However, you should be aware of several additional security considerations when using a MobileMe account in Mac OS X:

• Some of the data sent back and forth over the Internet between your computer and Apple's MobileMe servers isn't encrypted while in transit, making it vulnerable to sniffing (covertly observing network traffic). The good news is that MobileMe uses SSL to encrypt the connections between your Mac and Apple's ...