Mac Security


Recommended Posts

Whats up guys/gals!...I ran into a little problem at the job that might lose one of our biggest mac clients :(...This company is under new management, and they aren't fans of macs!!...They want to get rid of all the macs and replace them with PC's because they view having the macs as a huge "security risk"...So i'm the one in charge of proving them wrong. If i can come up with enough reasons explaining why the macs are secure enough to keep, and dont pose any risk to the network, then they'll have no choice but to keep them. If i can't, then all those macs are gone, as well as the employees who use them (about 25)...Any help is appreciated....Thanks for reading :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm curious as to what they were planning on replacing them with. Windows PCs? :)

You can tell them about the support for industry standard security in OS X including but not limitied to:

-Common Access Cards (if Macs are good enough for the FBI and the US military they should be good enough for everyone).

- Wireless security (WEB/WAP (personal and Radius server) with 128bit encryption)

-Kerberos Authentication

-built on BSD security model

-all services are turned offf by default

-all ports are closed by default.

-no known viruses for OS X

-no known remote vulnerabilities for OS X

etc...

Edited by aristotle-dude
Link to comment
Share on other sites

SFNE, Them syaing that the macs represent a "security risk" is just the companys way of getting rid of the Mac's, because they dont have the know-how, or want a third party company (us) supporting them.

aristotle-dude, Thank you so much for the feedback, if you guys can think of anything else, that would be awsome!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

- The Macs will never get viruses

- They don't get viruses

- You don't get viruses on macs

- There are no security exploits in the Mac OS (that are exploited)

- Windows Update has a new patch daily one some exploit or another

- No one that hacks dumb corporate networks knows how to hack macs (only the smart people know how)

- Steve jobs > Bill gates

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Give them statistics about past security updates comparing OS X to Windows. We get maybe what 4 or 5 maybe less a year, Windows gets that many a month.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Give them statistics about past security updates comparing OS X to Windows. We get maybe what 4 or 5 maybe less a year, Windows gets that many a month.

what's wrong with security updates, microsoft is just insuring that no security breahes can happen. mot security patches are released before large worms come out. I would think the more you patch your OS, the better

Link to comment
Share on other sites

what's wrong with security updates, microsoft is just insuring that no security breahes can happen. mot security patches are released before large worms come out. I would think the more you patch your OS, the better

The fact that you even have to patch your OS is the reason Windows is insecure. People are exploiting Windows far too much to consider it a safe OS. Linux is a pretty secure OS and OS X is pretty close, though less secure. All OSs are vulnerable so you have to look at who's making them insecure. Hackers are. Therefore, the more hacked OS (Windows) is less secure as more hackers are working on exploiting.

Who hacks Mac OS? Why would they? So they can exploit 1% of users in the world?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're questioning the security of Macs and replacing them with Windows PCs; for better security? Wow, that's what whack company.

Yeah, unless they were going to us linux, but then they would probably like OS X and not want to get rid of the macs...

I know some guy who runs an ISP and he things that using a mac on their internal network would screw things up...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who hacks Mac OS? Why would they? So they can exploit 1% of users in the world?

Bragging rights are as good a motivation as any to write a virus or worm for os x.

Do you really think there aren't enough people among the pro-windows, pro-linux, and anti-apple zealot groups that at least one of them wouldn't have thought about making a virus?

I could write a mail worm tonight in the span of 20 mins. I'm not sure how effective it would be - but it wouldn't be difficult by any stretch.

Getting people to run the worm somehow (either by exploiting a security issue or social engineering) is another. For example I could bash out a bash script that opened up your address book, took a list of email addresses, opened up a scripted telnet session and bashed out a bunch of messages through your default mail server with itself as an attachment. Thats the easy part.

Now convincing someone to save the attachments, go into the terminal, change the permissions on the script to allow execution, and then run it - that's harder. I'm sure if people put some time into it then they could trick people into running it though (and obviously using BASH script isn't my first choice as language to write OS X viruses in).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hate to say this as a Mac owner, but they may be right, if they are planning to replace them with Linux PCs. There is no reason why they can't make a custom live CD and just boot off that and map /home to a network server somewhere. Machine gets broken? No problem, restart and it will work.

Even with Windows PCs the cost saving will be huge (at least on hardware, and probably support as there are many more times MSCE 'experts' and people like that).

Obviously this isn't a good idea for you, but what do they use the Macs for? If it's design work, I doubt the artists will move - most of the true artists I know will not use anything else than a Mac and their are even a hardcore who stick with OS9 :x

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.