Mac Security: Deal Or No Deal?

True of false: when you use the Mac platform, you never have to worry about security again.

At the risk of offending all the Mac zealots out there, the answer is a resounding false.That's not to say the Mac isn't inherently secure, but rather there are many factors - applications vulnerabilities, user/operator ignorance, malicious code on the web - that are outside your control and at times outside the control of any operating system.

Today's featured review, from our resident Mac expert John Welch, sums up the issue nicely with one example of a potential vulnerability: "Don't assume that just because the base operating system is essentially secure that everything else that ships with the operating system is as secure. There are quite a few Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server boxes that get cracked because of poorly configured PHP/Perl/Web/Database applications."

Welch paints a clear picture of the areas where lack of knowledge and outside threats can still cause lots of problems in the Mac environment. And no - neither he nor I are claiming that this makes the Mac insecure. Only that you still need to understand where the various threats lie. Agree? Disagree? State your case.