Securing Mac

For as many computers as there are that run Windows as its OS, as an administrator you’re guaranteed to run across a few Mac OS X users. It is good to familiarize yourself with the security needs of the Macintosh OS. Mac's have a large selection of antivirus programs including Norton AntiVirus 10.0 For Macintosh, McAfee VirusScan For Mac, Intego Virus Barrier X4, Sophos Anti-Virus For Macintosh, and ClamXav. Because of the lesser popularity of the Mac OS spyware is a very small threat to the operating system. There are very few utilities that you can use to remove it. Two programs you can use though are SmithMicro Software's Internet Cleanup and SecureMac.com Inc.'s MacScan. Many other ways of securing a Mac computer follow the same practices as a normal PC. Keep your OS up to date with the latest security updates. The software ran on the computers must be up to date as well. Setting up an IP Firewall is easy to do and can be done within the OS. A nice feature of the Mac OS is that it allows for 128-bit encryption using its FileVault feature. For the extremely paranoid Mac users, they would be happy to learn that they can even encrypt their virtual memory. Mac's out of the box are inherently more secure than PC's, but that does not mean that there aren't any threats out there. A Mac can be exploited or hacked just as easy as a Windows PC.