MDM moves beyond mobile devices into Macs
MobileIron today announced that its mobile device management (MDM) tool now supports the new OS X Mountain Lion operating system for Macs, released on Wednesday. The company cited fast adoption of Macs in business as the reason it moved out of its mobile-only roots (iOS, Android, and some lesser-used mobile OSes). "Forrester Research forecasts that enterprises will spend $19 billion on the Mac and iPad in 2012, with that number increasing to $28 billion in 2013," MobileIron noted. In June, MDM provider AirWatch annoucned similar support for OS X Lion and says Mountain Lion support is due soon.
The management capabilities MobileIron and AirWatch offer IT for OS X are minimum passcode and password requirements, Wi-Fi and VPN configurations, authentication certificates (for users, apps, and devices), email configuration, remote lock and wipe, and removal of enterprise provisioning information when retiring Macs. Although OS X Server provides these same capabilities for Macs and iOS devices, it requires that IT have a separate server than what is used for managing other devices and doesn't provide as much management capability as available in an MDM tool such as MobileIron's or AirWatch's. Read more...
Kaspersky detects more APT attacks targeting Macs
Kaspersky Labs has detected a new wave of Mac OS X APT (advanced persistent threat) attacks, marking the second time this year the security company has presented evidence that the Apple platform is susceptible to such threats.
This particular attack is aimed at Uyghur activists -- but that's no reason for other Mac users to be complacent. "With Macs growing in popularity and their increased adoption by high-profile targets, we expect the number of Mac OS X APT attacks will also grow," cautioned Costin Raiu, a Kaspersky Lab Expert. Read more...
Snow Leopard users most prone to Flashback infection
Of the Macs that have been infected by the Flashback malware, nearly two-thirds are running OS X 10.6, better known as Snow Leopard, a Russian antivirus company said Friday.
Doctor Web, which earlier this month was the first to report the largest-ever malware attack against Apple Macs, mined data it's intercepted from compromised computers to come up with its findings.
The company, along with other security vendors, has been "sinkholing" select command-and-control (C&C) domains used by the Flashback botnet -- hijacking them before the hackers could use the domains to issue orders or update their attack code -- to both estimate the botnet's size and disrupt its operation. Read more...
Apple delivers Flashback malware hunter-killer
Two days after Apple promised to decontaminate Macs infested with the Flashback malware, on Thursday the company delivered.
Yesterday's newest Mac OS X Java update includes a tool that will "remove the most common variants of the Flashback malware," Apple's advisory read.
On Tuesday, Apple for the first time acknowledged the Flashback malware campaign that exploited a Java vulnerability to infect hundreds of thousands of Macs. At the same time, Apple pledged to craft a detect-and-delete tool that would scrub compromised machines of the attack code. Read more...
Apple issues Lion disk disaster recovery tool
Apple on Monday released a utility that builds a Lion recovery disk on a USB flash drive, giving users a way to restore their Macs if the machine's hard drive fails completely.
The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant is a free download, and requires a flash or "thumb" drive of 1GB or more, or an external drive connected to the Mac via a USB cable and port.
"This drive can be used in the event you cannot start your computer with the built-in Recovery HD, or you have replaced the hard drive with a new one that does not have Mac OS X installed," Apple explained in an accompanying support document. Read more...