Snow Leopard Security (unwanted snooping)->Thanks!
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From: Terry Carmen on 1 Apr 2010 13:15 I left a juicy tidbit that would be irresistible for office water-cooler fodder, told nobody, and nothing happened. It's obviously this a human problem, not a technology problem, and I'll now stop beating my head against the wall. I'd like to thank everybody for their help. Had this been a *nix server, I would have known what to look at and how to know that the system is secure, however the Mac is has a different "surface area" for external attack vectors, so I was never really sure if I had secured everything or not. Thanks for all the help! On a different note, and not related to any machines that I'm responsible for, one of my friends has informed me that her macbook is apparently not waterproof. Astonishingly enough, she actually has a current external backup. Catch you later. Terry
From: Paul Sture on 2 Apr 2010 15:14 In article <TbadneI6Gb8gSSnWnZ2dnUVZ_o-dnZ2d(a)giganews.com>, Terry Carmen <terry(a)cnysupport.com> wrote: > I left a juicy tidbit that would be irresistible for office water-cooler > fodder, told nobody, and nothing happened. > > It's obviously this a human problem, not a technology problem, and I'll > now stop beating my head against the wall. > > I'd like to thank everybody for their help. > > Had this been a *nix server, I would have known what to look at and how > to know that the system is secure, however the Mac is has a different > "surface area" for external attack vectors, so I was never really sure if > I had secured everything or not. > > Thanks for all the help! > > On a different note, and not related to any machines that I'm responsible > for, one of my friends has informed me that her macbook is apparently not > waterproof. Astonishingly enough, she actually has a current external > backup. > > Catch you later. > Thanks for the feedback. -- Paul Sture
From: Paul Fuchs on 3 Apr 2010 11:40 Paul Sture <paul.nospam(a)sture.ch> wrote: > On a different note, and not related to any machines that I'm responsible > > for, one of my friends has informed me that her macbook is apparently not > > waterproof. Astonishingly enough, she actually has a current external > > backup. Really. I take mine when scuba diving, but not below 35 meters Replaces the wrist computer for nitrogen absorption. -- During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell
From: Jeffrey Goldberg on 4 Apr 2010 12:56 Terry Carmen wrote: > I left a juicy tidbit that would be irresistible for office water-cooler > fodder, told nobody, and nothing happened. > > It's obviously this a human problem, not a technology problem, and I'll > now stop beating my head against the wall. Well, sorry that your overall problem isn't resolved, but at least we've excluded the Mac from being where the problem lies. > I'd like to thank everybody for their help. You're welcome. > Had this been a *nix server, I would have known what to look at and how > to know that the system is secure, however the Mac is has a different > "surface area" for external attack vectors, so I was never really sure if > I had secured everything or not. Thinking of it both as a Unix server (vulnerable to that sort of attack vector) and a desktop computer (so vulnerable to trojans and such) is useful. One thing that I (and others) have recommended is that you set up your main account as a "regular" users and set up a separate account as an admin user. You will have a few more authentications to do when installing or updating software, but you will be able to still do everything from your regular account. I sort of take a compromise position. I am a regular users, but I've added my username to /etc/sudoers > On a different note, and not related to any machines that I'm responsible > for, one of my friends has informed me that her macbook is apparently not > waterproof. Astonishingly enough, she actually has a current external > backup. With Time Machine, there is now no longer any excuse of people not to have decent back-ups. Cheers, -j -- Jeffrey Goldberg http://goldmark.org/jeff/ I rarely read HTML or poorly quoting posts Reply-To address is valid
From: Jeffrey Goldberg on 4 Apr 2010 13:01
Lewis wrote: > In message <TbadneI6Gb8gSSnWnZ2dnUVZ_o-dnZ2d(a)giganews.com> Terry Carmen > <terry(a)cnysupport.com> wrote: >> Had this been a *nix server, I would have known what to look at and >> how to know that the system is secure, however the Mac is has a >> different "surface area" for external attack vectors, so I was never >> really sure if I had secured everything or not. > A Mac is a unix system. If you look at a tcpdump from a mac then just > like a Unix system that is *all* the tcp traffic. The difference for security issues in my mind between a Mac and a Unix *server* is that the Mac is being used as a desktop and so is potentially more vulnerable to trojans downloaded and installed by users. On the other hand, since it is a desktop and not a server, it isn't running as many publicly accessible services. And so it will be less vulnerable to the kinds of things that servers get hit with, like remote vulnerabilities in web services or broken sshd servers. Cheers, -j -- Jeffrey Goldberg http://goldmark.org/jeff/ I rarely read HTML or poorly quoting posts Reply-To address is valid |