OS X Security
I'm sorry if this has been posted on some newbie thread, but I had a question. I just bought an tiger computer, and I was wondering what kind of security software I needed. On my pc i had zone alarm, norton anti-virus, microsoft anti-spy, and spybot. Is there anything similar I should be looking to install on the mac? Some people have said that you need nothing but I find that a little hard to believe (although I may just be so used to battening down the hatches on pcs that I can't imagine not having to). Either way, just send me your tips on how the keep my comp safe. Thanks
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Originally posted by Ejpejp
I'm sorry if this has been posted on some newbie thread, but I had a question. I just bought an tiger computer, and I was wondering what kind of security software I needed. On my pc i had zone alarm, norton anti-virus, microsoft anti-spy, and spybot. Is there anything similar I should be looking to install on the mac? Some people have said that you need nothing but I find that a little hard to believe (although I may just be so used to battening down the hatches on pcs that I can't imagine not having to). Either way, just send me your tips on how the keep my comp safe. Thanks
You will be okay without anything. Just turn it on and have fun. Really. Welcome to the Mac, OS X and Appleinsider. Don't be a stranger. People here like to help. Keep us up with your experiences.
Just turn on the Firewall.
Since you have Tiger, just press the Command key (aka Apple key) then the Spacebar - that will bring up Spotlight.
Type Firewall and Spotlight will show you where to click to turn it on.
Originally posted by Cake
Since you have Tiger, just press the Command key (aka Apple key) then the Spacebar - that will bring up Spotlight.
Type Firewall and Spotlight will show you where to click to turn it on.
I think you mean CTRL key, then space bar...
Originally posted by Ejpejp
Is there anything similar I should be looking to install on the mac? Some people have said that you need nothing but I find that a little hard to believe (although I may just be so used to battening down the hatches on pcs that I can't imagine not having to).
Believe it or not, it's that way. As for now, there are no viruses for Mac OS X in the sense of Windows viruses. Only occasionally some vulnerabilities (and often difficult to exploit) that are quickly patched. Just have an eye on system and security updates from Apple (Software update from System Preferences can be set up to do that for you).
Either way, just send me your tips on how the keep my comp safe. Thanks
Now, there are certainly some extra measures you can take using the tools that are built in the OS.
As first measure I would suggest to turn on your firewall. I am not sure how it works in Tiger, but in Panther you just launch System Preferences, then click the Sharing preference pane. Once there, you choose the firewall tab and you just turn it on with a click. Make also sure that in Services tab all services are off (they should be by default). It should work similarly on Tiger. If I remember correctly, Tiger offers too a stealth mode for the firewall, which hides even more your computer.
Second measure: create a normal (non-admin) account for your everyday work. The first account created after the system installation is an admin account which has too much power to be used everyday. Accounts are controled from the, guess what, Accounts preference pane in System Preferences.
Third measure: don't give your admin password in an application or installation procedure, unless you are sure what are you doing.
Fourth: if you want to test something that you have downloaded from a source that you don't trust, just create a test account for that. In the case the application (or script or anything) that you downloaded tries to do anything bad to your home directory (remember, without an admin password it cannot touch anything beyond the home directory of the user that runs it), it will just do it in the test account and you have nothing to lose. With the exception of some nasty vulnerabilities, which as I said generally are very quickly patched, the worse that can happen in a user account is to delelte all its files. That's why it is good to do regular backups and have a test account for such things. Which leads us to
Five: watch your web practices. If you often download internet junk, just don't do it in your normal user account, even more so in the admin account. Remember, you don't need a Windows grade "virus" to wreak havoc in your home directory. A simple application that runs the "rm -rf ~/" shell command will erase completely your home directory (with the admin password it can erase the whole hard drive running "rm -rf /"). This is besides the command that you would run if you wished to do so, without having to go from the Finder.
Originally posted by Ejpejp
I'm sorry if this has been posted on some newbie thread, but I had a question. I just bought an tiger computer, and I was wondering what kind of security software I needed. On my pc i had zone alarm, norton anti-virus, microsoft anti-spy, and spybot. Is there anything similar I should be looking to install on the mac? Some people have said that you need nothing but I find that a little hard to believe (although I may just be so used to battening down the hatches on pcs that I can't imagine not having to). Either way, just send me your tips on how the keep my comp safe. Thanks
i ditched my antivirus for mac several months ago. heh... anti-spyware for mac? i don't think such a software exists
hard to believe, but welcome to the mac.
i am running my computers behind the wireless router firewall though, router has discard ping, SPI on, etc...
also the poster above has provided good tips on unix/mac os-x - oriented security. also when you're trying out dashboard widgets, while there hasn't really been a malicious widget out in the wild AFAIK, his last tip is excellent for a user account for development/testing new and weird stuff
....just wait 'till you learn how easy backing up users are for mac os x 10.4.2
it'll blow you away
...also get a firewire-to-IDE-7200rpm-3.5"drive to use as your emergency hard drive boot disk (with a program called Super Duper). hella fun, and 1 million times easier than all the windoze boot cd/ disk drive fiddling.
Originally posted by sunilraman
...also get a firewire-to-IDE-7200rpm-3.5"drive to use as your emergency hard drive boot disk (with a program called Super Duper). hella fun, and 1 million times easier than all the windoze boot cd/ disk drive fiddling.
Super Duper is the best and easiest to use back up software for the mac.
Go here to find it. It saved me when my hard drive went bonkers. It will back up to CD, DVD and external hard drives. The developer is constantly updating as well. (For free.) And firewire drives are pretty inexpensive these days.
BTW. It is the Apple Key + the space bar for Spotlight.