Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.

• re: mac os x security
  2005-03-23 05:50:25  kollivier [Reply | View]
  
  
  Who's to say? Security-minded Mac owners, perhaps? Last I checked, the best way to secure a machine on the Internet was to reduce the number of potential avenues for attack and minimize potential damage, i.e. by enforcing good security permissions and not opening any unnecessary ports. OS X *does* do this. (And comes will built-in firewall support, to boot, in case you do run any servers.)
  
  If Windows *had* done this from the start, then there would never had been any viruses that can in minutes spread and make "zombies" out of hundreds of thousands of Windows boxes that only need to be connected to the Internet.
  
  This is why a firewall and anti-virus are required software for anyone using Windows. And the inconvenience of Windows' permissions system (which requires you to log out and re-log in every time you want to perform an Admin/Power User action) basically makes it so that people say 'heck with it' and just run as Admin all the time, giving any potential virus or trojan escalated permissions with which to do its damage.
  
  If you've got some real evidence as to how Apple and OS X ignores security, I'd like to hear it, but there's no point in speculating on something you know little about. (And you sound very unfamiliar with OS X's security policies.)

• re: mac os x security (picking nits)
  2005-03-23 05:45:16  pmcomeau [Reply | View]
  
  
  "Out of the box it's in fact worse than Windows out of the box.
  "
  
  Which one?
  
  OpenBSD out of the box is more secure then Windows (pre SP 2 for XP, post SP 2 I would say XP is closer but still not quite as good) as everything is turned off by default. In fact O'Reilly network had a nice series of articles on how to use it as a firewall.
  
  The other BSD's are reltivly secure (e.g. I don't know if NetBSD turns everything off by default, I know OS X does.)
  
  So... please be specific
• re: mac os x security (picking nits)
  2005-03-23 06:05:28  msporleder [Reply | View]
  
  
  NetBSD turns everything off by default. You can barely hack into it after the install finishes and you know the root password. ;) The only likely security problems installed by a full install (not turned on) are ssh and sendmail/postfix.