User profile vs dedicated device?

[I am He]

I was just rethinking the need for a separate "financial-only" device and it occurred to me that perhaps using a separate User profile would suffice.

I'm on a Mac.

Any thoughts re: if a virus was on a device, would it cripple the whole thing or would it be user-specific? I could easily just add a "financial profile" and do my banking from that one profile and surf the net on another profile?

 

[triangle]

I am no MacOS expert, but anything that infected the core OS or services could affect other users. Viruses are varied and exploit vulnerabilities in unexpected ways, so I would expect some protection from a subset of viruses by using different account, but in general I do not think is sufficient to replace someone who wants/needs to have a "financial-only" device.

If it was possible to install a second instance of MacOS or linux and dual boot into this financial only operating environment, then that should provide the desired protection.

 

[MRG]

I can't spell Mac, but you're looking for a virtual machine that shares nothing. IF you're convinced that you are getting viruses with the current protection, it's generally better to understand what you're protecting yourself from and fix that.

If you had a separate machine that would fix the cross-contamination problem but what is different? If you are getting infected, your protection is broken.

 

[Sunset]

I can't spell Mac, but you're looking for a virtual machine that shares nothing. IF you're convinced that you are getting viruses with the current protection, it's generally better to understand what you're protecting yourself from and fix that.

If you had a separate machine that would fix the cross-contamination problem but what is different? If you are getting infected, your protection is broken.

I agree maximizing the protect is important and should be a person's goal.

However, a 2nd machine means all your eggs are not in 1 basket, and if all a person does with the 2nd machine is banking & brokerage (not even email) then the risk to finances is reduced.

 

[Sojourner]

I can't spell Mac, but you're looking for a virtual machine that shares nothing. IF you're convinced that you are getting viruses with the current protection, it's generally better to understand what you're protecting yourself from and fix that.

If you had a separate machine that would fix the cross-contamination problem but what is different? If you are getting infected, your protection is broken.

+1

An isolated virtual machine instance could be what you're looking for here. Windows 11 Pro has a feature like this, known as Windows Sandbox. When you fire up Sandbox, it creates a basic, leightweight instance of the Windows OS running in its own isolated memory space. Any virus or other malware that manages to infect either instance of Windows (the regular/main one, or the Sandbox) cannot infect the other. I'm sure there must be something similar available for macOS, but if not you could always use 3rd party VM software like VMWare or VirtualBox.

 

[triangle]

Has anyone gotten a VM to run on their M1/M2 processor Mac? I got an entry level MacBook Air for Christmas and am not very familiar with its administrative operations. With its modest RAM and Disk storage specs my expectations for running a VM were not a factor in the purchase. But what if it could host a VM or dual boot a linux distro on occasion (I have not researched to see if it is possible to boot from a USB flash drive). Having a lightweight install of linux that included a couple of web browsers to run in VM could be helpful, assuming it was not too difficult to persist network settings and access to disk storage or NAS. Something that was free of $ cost or nearly free.

From searching around a bit it seems the best free option might be "VirtualBox" but it requires one to use a "developer beta". Something called UTM found at mac.getutm.app came up early in the search results and looks promising but after reading some of their pages, including the FAQ, it has not yet defined the acronym UTM. It did state that it is largely built off of QEMU (Quick Emulator) that translates the binary. Though I would hope/expect to have a linux.iso for ARM so that translation was unnecessary.

 

[matjung]

Perhaps it is best if you don't worry about Virus but about Spy-Ware also called Keylogger.
From your perspective, it would cripple the whole thing.
Working with different profiles for different tasks is still a good idea; it's supposed to improve your productivity.

 

[ncbill]

Has anyone gotten a VM to run on their M1/M2 processor Mac? I got an entry level MacBook Air for Christmas and am not very familiar with its administrative operations. With its modest RAM and Disk storage specs my expectations for running a VM were not a factor in the purchase. But what if it could host a VM or dual boot a linux distro on occasion (I have not researched to see if it is possible to boot from a USB flash drive). Having a lightweight install of linux that included a couple of web browsers to run in VM could be helpful, assuming it was not too difficult to persist network settings and access to disk storage or NAS. Something that was free of $ cost or nearly free.

From searching around a bit it seems the best free option might be "VirtualBox" but it requires one to use a "developer beta". Something called UTM found at mac.getutm.app came up early in the search results and looks promising but after reading some of their pages, including the FAQ, it has not yet defined the acronym UTM. It did state that it is largely built off of QEMU (Quick Emulator) that translates the binary. Though I would hope/expect to have a linux.iso for ARM so that translation was unnecessary.

Parallels Desktop virtualization software for Mac supports M1/M2 chips.

Either $99.99/year subscription or $129.99 for one-time purchase (no updates included)

 

[target2019]

I have several alternate devices. It's much simpler to purchase a tablet or chromebook and go from there, instead of virtual, and so on.

So, if A computer develops any problem (hardware things happen too, ya know), then I have another path.

Another device is preferred, because I can take it with me to another network location.