Protect your Data in a Mac Environment

Can You Make Your Mac Network Stronger than Fort Knox?

All Covered is offering security services (IM Protection, Web Protection, Email Encryption, and Email Archive) through our Postini partnership (see the main article for more details), so we thought we’d show you how to further increase security and control in your Macintosh-enabled workplace.

Instant Messaging
Mac OS X Server 10.4 and later comes with iChat Server built-in. Based on the jabber protocol, Mac OS X Server is able to serve out jabber services to any jabber-capable client, including iChat, Adium X (on Mac OS X) and Trillian (Windows).

Enable your employees to communicate with one another in the network, or even remotely, exchanging files, text, video and audio chat, all managed by Mac OS X Server’s Open Directory. It’s as easy as starting the service in Mac OS X Server Admin application. System administrators can even enable encryption by creating their own self-signed certificate, or by using one from a provider like GoDaddy or Verisign, encrypting all IM traffic.

Best of all, there are no CAL (client access license) limits. Do you have an Active Directory infrastructure already? No problem -- bind your Mac OS X Server to Active Directory, and use your Active Directory credentials to instant message using the now AD-bound iChat Server.

Content Filtering
Mac OS X can be locally-managed or profiles and groups can be managed on Mac OS X Server. This enables system administrators to prevent users from accessing certain sites, and even allows a simple white list of sites to which employees can only navigate.

If you already have Postini’s Web Filtering service in place, use it in conjunction with your Mac OS X management policy to keep unwanted, unproductive content out of the workplace.

Encryption
Any small business should be concerned about security and encryption. That’s why Mac OS X comes with the ability to secure and encrypt just about every aspect of the user experience.

There are three main ways to keep your user data safe and secure.

• First, File Vault. File Vault encrypts the entire user folder (or profile) into a password-protected disk image on the local system. Encrypted with AES-128bit protection, the user’s profile is completely secure.

• Second, Both Apple’s Mail program and Microsoft’s Entourage can be modified to include self-signed or commercially-verified certificates for signing and encryption. Thawte.com offers free personal email certificates, and other providers offer low-cost certificates, enabling employees to send encrypted email traffic to each other or to clients.

• Lastly, Keychain assistant (again, built into Mac OS X) offers a simple, but powerful way to automatically store email, website and website credentials in a highly encrypted and secure system.

Mac OS X creates a login keychain for each user on the system, which is set to automatically unlock on login (and lock on logout), allowing users to store email passwords, and other sometimes complicated credentials, in a secure format. Apple even offers a password assistant, showing you the rating of a chosen password allowing a user to evaluate the quality of their password on the fly.

Users can further extend the value of Keychain assistant by manually creating secure notes in their keychain, or even add multiple keychains devoted to the storage of certain types of passwords, serial numbers for important purchased software, important personal information, etc.

Archive Management
Assuming you have an inordinate amount of email messages or even files stored locally, it may confound the occasional user to perform a search for a file or email message. Fortunately Mac OS X 10.4 includes Spotlight, a tool which PC users can only be expected to understand if they are familiar with Google Desktop or the built-in searching tool in Windows Vista.

Spotlight can find files using file name, content, or type of file, as it even searches meta-data. It can even use boolean queries, such as “apple .xls” to find an Excel spreadsheet with “apple” in its name or in a field in the document.

Spotlight can also be extended by the use of plugins. Check http://www.apple.com/macosx/downloads/ for Spotlight Plugins and other userful downloads for Mac OS X.

How All Covered Can Help

If this is an issue for your business, All Covered provides backup consulting and services for small businesses nationwide.

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