U.S. Army Acquires More Macs To Enhance Cybersecurity

[MacRumors]

The U.S. Army believes that diversifying its computing platforms, in part by integrating more Macs, will make it more secure against cyberattacks like the ones that occurred over the summer to the Pentagon and a number of defense contractors.

According to Forbes, the Army has quietly begun to integrate Macs into its systems. While Macs currently only make up around 20,000 of the Army's 700,000 computers, Macs are currently entering the Army at a rate of approximately 2,000 per year.

The previous barriers to Apples entering the Army have recently been overcome by Common Access Card (CAC) software development efforts by a Texas developer (CAC's are used extensively by the military) and security concerns outweighing cost concerns.

"A leaked deployment order, for instance, might reveal the path of a supply truck and the points where it could be sabotaged [...] This is information that affects the lives of soldiers and the civilians we're trying protect [...] It has to be safeguarded."

Every now and then questions rise about the security of Mac OS X. Earlier this year was the Month of Apple Bugs, and just this week was an article claiming that Mac OS X had 5 times more flaws than Windows over the past year. However, developments like this seem to indicate that Apple's security reputation remains positive amongst IT professionals.

Article Link

[Eidorian]

A little old by now but it is interesting news.

More Mac users is always good.

I hope that they can develop something for us.

[Stridder44]

Only good news here.

[tothecore]

heh...if we keep rubbing it in their face... we'll end up like a PC fearing viruses more & more

[noodle654]

I wonder what Macs they are using. I would expect Mac Pro's with like 3.0GHz Quad Core??

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by noodle654

I wonder what Macs they are using. I would expect Mac Pro's with like 3.0GHz Quad Core??

More then likely XServes.

[noodle654]

Ohhh, you are probably right. I forgot all about the Xservers.

[psychofreak]

Boy are they going to feel silly when massive updates come at MWSF

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by noodle654

Ohhh, you are probably right. I forgot all about the Xservers.

You don't when you have a few and a personal copy of Leopard Server.

[noodle654]

Originally Posted by Eidorian

You don't when you have a few and a personal copy of Leopard Server.

Damn your lucky.

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by noodle654

Damn your lucky.

Education discounts and seminars really help.

[Barcode]

New Security update just added.

[MattJessop]

I wonder if we might see a Mac vs PC taking an army perspective? A US vs Iraq perspective perhaps? We all know Microsoft have hidden WMDs in their software code.

Personally, I'm just waiting for someone to point out that the M1A1 tank feels snappier.

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by Barcode

New Security update just added.

Indeed

[Master Atrus]

Originally Posted by MattJessop

I wonder if we might see a Mac vs PC taking an army perspective? A US vs Iraq perspective perhaps? We all know Microsoft have hidden WMDs in their software code.

Personally, I'm just waiting for someone to point out that the M1A1 tank feels snappier.

Now that was funny!

[LaDirection]

Cool, maybe now they port America's Army back to Mac ;-)

[AoWolf]

Originally Posted by LaDirection

Cool, maybe now they port America's Army back to Mac ;-)

They only bought macs to do the artwork for it =p

[FX120]

I am a little surprised they're not more focused on improving their network security rather than their client machines.

No matter what OS you use, you're only really as secure as the network you're attached to.

[irun5k]

A lot of the military uses common, standardized platforms like NMCI. I suspect there is little room in these environments for Macs- I recently witnessed a bunch of LCDs being surplused because they weren't on the NMCI approved list. So the old CRTs already in place and on the list were retained instead- brilliant.

I'm sure there will always be remote corners of the DOD where Macs can pop up. In fact, the data processing and analysis area of the base I work at uses Macs- somehow they avoided the NMCI mandate presumably because they made a compelling argument that they had special needs. But don't look for a Macbook Pro on the General's desk anytime soon.

[aaarrrgggh]

The strategy is to avoid a monoculture by diversifying between operating systems like Windows, Linux, and OS X. It should prevail from the server to the desktop.

It's a huge thing for the military to accept Apple hardware, both for AAPL and the OSX community. For AAPL, it means ~20%+ of US Military (and other militaries around the world eventually) computer purchases are possible with little effort. For OSX, it means that major US government software vendors will not be able to ignore the platform no matter what their preferences are.

There has been talk of this movement for years, but this is the first time the US Military has really gone to the lengths of emphasizing it as a strategy. There should be fallout in corporate america as well. Really, this is a huge story with amazing impact on Apple's opportunities!

[chimerical]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

According to Forbes, the Army has quietly begun to integrate Macs into its systems.

Not so quietly anymore though.

[bluedevil14]

5 times more flaws? Thats a load of crap.

[Stridder44]

Originally Posted by bluedevil14

5 times more flaws? Thats a load of crap.

Anti-Mac people even felt that article was a load of crap.

[notjustjay]

Originally Posted by MattJessop

Personally, I'm just waiting for someone to point out that the M1A1 tank feels snappier.

I have one of those at my workplace Loud things. They sound like a jet airplane about to take off -- naturally, because of the way their turbine engine works.

Glad to see the US Army thinks diversification (including Apple) is a good idea. Let's see if other governments follow suit.

[bête noire]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

While Macs currently only make up around 20,000 of the Army's 700,000 computers, Macs are currently entering the Army at a rate of approximately 2,000 per year.

A rate of approximately 2,000 per year, eh?

If the Army has 20,000 Macs and we estimate a four-year lifespan per Mac, they'd need 5,000 Macs per year "entering the Army" just to keep the numbers constant. So what the article actually says is that Mac numbers are dropping fast.

If we assume what was meant was an increase of 2,000 Macs per year, (20,000, 22,000, 24,000, etc) and we generously assume a matching decrease in Windows numbers (700,000, 680,000, 660,000), then the Mac will have achieved parity with Windows (360,000 each) in a mere 170 years.

Whoopee.