Data Fence For Mac

Mac computers store information about the system performance and usage in BSM audit data files, which are by default hidden to the regular users.

You can access the data stored in them by using the “sudo ls -l /var/audit” command in the Terminal to find the files, and then employ the “sudo cp /var/audit/“ command to create a copy (working directly with the BSM files is not advisable).

Data Fence is a Mac OS X application that is able to open and analyze the BSM files and, most importantly, trigger alerts if the documents contain evidence of suspicious access to your data.

You can install the Live Analysis Package and monitor your system in real time: Data Fence will gather live data and display alerts instantly.

Data Fence allows the user to specify what type of files should be monitored, such as PDF, PowerPoint, or Word documents, iWork projects or image files. These “fences” come as default templates, so all you have to do is check the associated box to activate them.

However, you can also create your own “fences” and adapt them to your own security needs: you can monitor entire directories, specify which applications have access to the data, set up audio alerts, add a small description and more.

Note that these alarms usually go off only if other guest users access the files, and not when you open the documents from your own user account.

Data Fence might prove to be challenging to inexperienced users because you must learn how to get hold of the BSM audit data files. You can bypass this issue by installing the Live Analysis Package that monitors the audit data in real time.

Moreover, you must also learn how to create effective “fences” and how to interpret the possible alerts. Nonetheless, once you figure everything out, Data Fence is a great tool to have around.