Security features for MacBook Pro
Your MacBook Pro with Apple silicon provides security features to protect what’s on your computer and prevent unauthorized software apps from loading during startup:
Secure startup: Support for secure startup is turned on automatically. It’s designed to verify that the operating system software loaded on your computer at startup is authorized by Apple.
If your MacBook Pro doesn’t start because it detects an untrusted component, it starts up from a secure recovery partition and automatically corrects issues if possible. To learn how to set security options, see Change security settings on the startup disk of a Mac with Apple silicon in the macOS User Guide.
Secure storage: Your MacBook Pro storage drive is encrypted with hardware keys to provide advanced levels of security. In the event of a catastrophic failure, data recovery may not be possible, so you need to back up your files to an external source. See Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon in the macOS User Guide.
You can set up Time Machine or another backup plan to regularly back up your files. See Back up your files with Time Machine in the macOS User Guide, and the Apple Support article Back up your Mac with Time Machine.
System integrity: The Apple silicon in your MacBook Pro is designed to verify that the version of macOS software loaded during startup is authorized by Apple, and continues behind the scenes to protect the authorizations established for macOS. This makes it harder for malware or malicious websites to exploit your Mac.
Data Protection: In addition to the default storage drive encryption in MacBook Pro, third-party app developers can use file-level encryption to better protect sensitive data, without impacting system performance.
Connect accessories securely: With a MacBook Pro with Apple silicon, you can approve new USB and Thunderbolt accessories when you connect them to your MacBook Pro. See Allow accessories to connect to your Mac.
Note: In rare circumstances, such as a power failure during a macOS upgrade, your MacBook Pro may become unresponsive and the firmware on the chip may need to be revived. See Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon with Apple Configurator in the Apple Configurator User Guide.
Learn more. See the Apple Platform Security User Guide.