Broken mac laptop - is the data safe if it gets into someones hands?

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duckDecoy

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#302801 21-Dec-2022 14:20

My partner spilled a bottle of water on her macbook pro laptop and it screwed it. Ubertech says the insides are toast and we have made an insurance claim. The screen doesn't show anything, and it constantly reboots itself. Insurance says all good, please send us the broken one and we'll order you a new one.

My question is the data on there safe from prying eyes? I don't know what insurance companies do with broken hard drives, but she has some work data and documents on the computer that are very commercially sensitive and wouldn't want them to escape. With the screen blank and it constantly rebooting she is unable to delete the data herself.

Is the data safe? Im wondering if macbook data is naturally encrypted or something and without her login the data is protected. If not, what do you think her options would be? The data is from a fairly large firm in NZ.

Advice, recommendations welcome.

wellygary

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#3012763 21-Dec-2022 14:28

What's the "fairly large firm's" corporate policy about its data,

Presumably they were cool for it to go outside their corporate network to a private device,

But its still their data...

I would get your partner to touch base with them about what they want to happen....

I mean that appears to be what you are worried about right?

Handsomedan

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#3012764 21-Dec-2022 14:31

wellygary:

I would get your partner to touch base with them about what they want to happen....

This is exactly what I would do.

Unless she wasn't supposed to have any sensitive data on her personal laptop, in which case, she's potentially in some trouble.

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#3012769 21-Dec-2022 14:41

Ask the tech to remove the HDD/SSD and send to you - do what you want with it then, at least its in your hands. Pretty sure the insurance company will be fine with that once you give your reasoning.

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Mehrts

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#3013050 22-Dec-2022 09:17

What exact model of MBP is it (year/model number)?

That'll determine how secure the drive contents are by default due to T1/T2 chip being present. Otherwise you'd have to manually select FileVault (drive encryption) under the settings.

freitasm

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#3013053 22-Dec-2022 09:32

As above. If the storage is encrypted then it would be unreadable even if someone removed the drive and plugged to another computer.

The organisation might have automated policies that enforce drive encryption, or you can manually turn it on.

If this is not the case, then the content could be read by anyone with access to the drive, in which case removing it is the safer alternative.

The large company might have policies in place on what to do with the data. Was this computer owned by the company or your partner? Was this computer joined to the company's domain and were policies applied to it?

Answers to these questions will determine what to do. In any case, your partner should contact the company to see what steps need to be taken.

duckDecoy

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#3013110 22-Dec-2022 14:07

Mehrts:

What exact model of MBP is it (year/model number)?

That'll determine how secure the drive contents are by default due to T1/T2 chip being present. Otherwise you'd have to manually select FileVault (drive encryption) under the settings.

She bought it in Aug 2021

duckDecoy

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#3013112 22-Dec-2022 14:09

Thanks for all the replies. We will contact the firm she was contracting with and discuss it with them, and then also get back to the insurance company with a proposal to remove the HD before returning. Unless the answer to @Mehrts T1/T2 question above negates us needing to bother.

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antoniosk

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#3013113 22-Dec-2022 14:20

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mh11785/mac

T2 was first seen on iMac in 2017 and MacBook Pro from 2018. Presume this one was purchased new in Aug 2021, so statistically it should be on.

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Behodar

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#3013146 22-Dec-2022 16:02

It will have a serial number etched into the bottom case. Put that number into the search field on https://support.apple.com/specs and it'll return the specific model.