I was pretty surprised to find that Apple intentionally leaves the firewall off by default. Should you use the built-in Mac firewall? Malware can still fool your firewall (or you) once you’ve installed it. In other words, the Mac firewall stops incoming attacks but only certain outgoing attacks. For example, if you download malware by accident and that app gets permission to pass through your firewall, it will be able to connect to a malicious source over the internet.

Your firewall won’t stop most apps already installed on your computer from connecting to an outside source over the internet. For instance, if you’re at the coffee shop and another computer user tries to infiltrate your Mac by exploiting the vulnerable public WiFi, your Mac firewall will stop them.Īs mentioned, though, it’s not a complete solution. The firewall stops devices from connecting to your Mac when you use the internet. But as we’ll get into, that might be better than a heftier solution for most people. There are other ways for hackers to breach your computer using an internet connection, so the Mac firewall isn’t a complete solution. This can prevent certain types of hacking attacks. Specifically, the firewall is used to prevent outside computers and servers from connecting to your Mac when you use the internet.

There are more robust firewalls out there, but the built-in option on Mac is pretty lightweight. The Mac firewall is what’s known as an application firewall. Let’s get into it! What is the Mac firewall? In this post, I’m going to explain what the firewall does, why it isn’t enabled by default, whether or not you should enable it, and, of course, how to enable it.

Even more surprising that my Mac had a built-in firewall was the discovery that it wasn’t enabled by default. The other day, while writing a post over preventing Mac malware, I found a built-in setting on my computer for a Mac firewall.

What is firewall on mac