- So much so that Sophos gave me a free sidegrade to SEC and extra user licenses to compensate for the lack of product advance with UTM and Windows Endpoint and total lack of any movement on UTM and Mac endpoint. Yes its in the roadmap on UTM but has been for 2 years and nothing has happened.
- McAfee® Endpoint Security for Mac is a comprehensive security solution that protects your Mac and minimizes the risk of exposure to threats. You can use the software on standalone and managed Mac systems.
So where does the truth lie? Are Macs more secure than Windows boxes? It is safe to have them on your enterprise network? In this tip, we'll offer a brief enterprise, looking at how both device types fair in several key categories, and wrap up with some advice to help you assess the risk of adding more Mac endpoints to a. First, in the interest of full disclosure, I have only recently admitted to myself that I am, indeed, a Mac guy. I don’t exactly know how it happened, but a few years ago I bought a first-generation iPhone, and then, all of a sudden, my household and office were overrun by Apple products.
I realized recently that the only Windows box at my ready disposal is an old clunker running Vista that my kids use for homework and games. Otherwise, Windows is now, to me, a completely virtual experience found by using Boot Camp or Parallels. I’ll set these personal preferences aside as we explore on the network. Let's see how Macs shape up with Windows devices in the following categories: Network security protocols Network security professionals rely upon a common toolkit for protecting sensitive information in transit over the network. We use VPNs to protect remote users connecting back to the home network and depend upon strong to provide rock-solid security.
We also spend a lot of time focusing on the security of wireless networks and depend upon the standard to secure those communications. Both Macs and PCs support the basic set of network security tools needed to provide secure communications over both public and private networks. Neither platform has an advantage here, as long as you configure each to use strong encryption. Network-based management The larger your enterprise, the more you probably rely upon centralized tools to manage your desktop configurations, antimalware protection, data loss prevention and other network security technologies. Windows shops typically rely upon (AD) for many of these tasks and there’s simply not a reliable, consistent way to take AD policies and apply them to your average OS X box. Even third-party products meant to ease centralized device management typically fall short when it comes to Mac support.
This article describes how to install an unmanaged Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (SEP SBE) agent on Mac. This article assumes you currently have an active Partner Management Console (PMC). Note: If you are new to the Partner Management Console click here for more information.
They leave administrators with the impression (probably not a false one!) that the vendors' developers focused for months or years on developing a Windows-based product and then quickly rushed out Mac support so they can say they have it. Indeed, I experienced this recently with the rollout of a popular DLP product.
The PC deployment went smoothly with the assistance of Active Directory, while the Mac deployment required technicians to visit each machine individually and install the client. Not exactly a smooth experience! The bottom line here is that PCs get the definite advantage for enterprise management. Apple hasn’t moved the ball far enough down the field to claim true enterprise support. The edge here goes to the folks in Redmond.
Endpoint Sec For Mac Pro
Server network security Are you considering running a Mac OS X server in your environment? You might want to think again. From a network security perspective, Microsoft has simply put much more time and effort into developing a product that is enterprise-ready. At a, researchers from iSEC Partners shared the results of a detailed side-by-side comparison of Windows and Macintosh security. In one section they compared the vulnerability of Windows Server 2008 R2 to Mac OS X 10.7 Server.
The conclusion? Windows had the advantage across the board, with a shocking bottom line, according to iSEC, that “OS X networks are significantly more vulnerable to network privilege escalation.
Almost every OS X Server service offers weak or broken authentication methods.” Once again, Microsoft gets the nod in this category. In fact, I don’t know of a single enterprise that is trying to rely entirely upon Apple products. (Before you all start flaming me, I said I personally don’t know of such a case - I’m sure you’re out there somewhere!) So what should you do? First, accept the fact that you most likely can’t run a pure Windows environment anymore. The combined forces of the consumerization of technology and the demand from users for Macs likely mean you’ll see Mac devices on your network in the near future, if they’re not there already.
That said, as much as the Mac lover in me hates to admit it, Apple just isn’t yet producing a product that’s ready to support in an enterprise environment on any large scale. I suspect they’ll remain in the hands of IT professionals (you’ll have to pry my MacBook out of my hands!) who can self-support their devices and creative types who need the unique tools available only on Macs (and have the dedicated IT support to back them up), but the crew in Cupertino still has a lot more work to do before enterprise can easily support and secure truly mixed environments. So, in the meantime, make sure you carefully think about the network security implications of having Macs around. When you select and deploy configuration management products that contribute to your network security management, make sure Macs are represented in the use cases you consider. If you’re rolling out a VPN or wireless network, be sure you test it on a few different versions of Mac OS X before releasing it to production.
The presence of Macs on our networks is inevitable, and it’s up to us to keep them secure. About the author: Mike Chapple, Ph.D., CISA, CISSP, is an IT security professional with the University of Notre Dame. He previously served as an information security researcher with the National Security Agency and the U.S. Mike is a frequent contributor to SearchSecurity.com, a technical editor for Information Security magazine and the author of several information security titles, including the CISSP Prep Guide and Information Security Illuminated.
Secure data at rest, in use and in transit on endpoint devices Most corporate laptops and PCs store proprietary data on their hard drives, and many users regularly work outside of a secure corporate environment. A data breach from a lost, stolen or compromised laptop can result in costly fines, lawsuits and lost revenue.
Full Disk Encryption secures the entire hard drive. Media Encryption and Port Control secure removable media. Capsule Docs enables organizations to seamlessly protect documents, ensuring access for authorized users only. Remote Access VPN provides secure access to corporate resources when traveling or working remotely. Secure endpoint devices from zero-day and advanced threats Threats from malware like viruses, worms and bots change constantly. Users are targets of phishing emails that may contain links to websites infected with this malware. To prevent these new and emerging threats, IT departments need comprehensive security even on endpoint devices no matter where they go.
With Check Point SandBlast Agent, security teams can now defend end-user systems against zero-day threats, bot communications with Command and Control servers and other advanced attacks Check Point Anti-Malware further helps to efficiently detect malware with a single scan. In addition, Check Point Firewall and Compliance Check protect endpoints by monitoring inbound and outbound traffic and ensuring policy compliance. Simplify endpoint security management with unified policies, centralized reporting and actionable forensics Check Point Endpoint Policy Management gives security administrators the power to enforce, manage, report and educate users with one console. With a customizable management dashboard, administrators have maximum visibility into the specific security areas important to the organization. They can take the steps to deploy and remediate endpoints to ensure compliance with company policy.
Endpoint Security For Mac 10.5
The forensics capability within SandBlast Agent provides security teams with a deeper understanding of security events by providing a comprehensive view of the full attack lifecycle, collecting actionable data on events, and accelerating remediation to limit any damages.