Mac OS X: A Secure Platform and a Valuable Security Tool in a Distributed Network Environment

摘要

Just a few years, ago the terms "Apple Macintosh," "security," "information systems auditing" and "distributed network environment" were rarely spoken in the same sentence. Most security professionals have utilized Microsoft Windows for years in their business environment and software tool kits. While Windows is still the market leader by a large margin, alternative solutions exist and offer useful features to assist auditors in performing their daily tasks. Apple has developed a platform that can be utilized by the information security practitioner as a valuable tool to aid in performing security assessments and audits. The platform has the ability to communicate with almost any enterprise operating system right out of the box; it can run nonnative software applications, and it has multiple inherent security features available to protect personal and client data gathered from an information systems audit or network security evaluation.