Longhorn locked against theft by iPod

[thatwendigo]

Remeber look at the people who buy them. They are more of the more techical crowd. I been ask my people what is a good way to move data. The average person does not go to computer store.

I can't point you at hard numbers, but plenty of the "technical crowd" are buying macs to run both OS X and Linux/BSD/Unix on them. There's any number of topics about this at SlashDot, and there are even resalers (like YellowdogYellowdog[/url]) that pimp Apple as a great alternative to the x86 world as a purely hardware solution.

The US Navy is using xServe clusters, hardened for military applications, to navigate some of the nuclear sub fleet and do sonar imaging. Sure, there's no "techincal" people using the mac platform.

I love it how the mac comunity refuses to see apple screws up.

Apple has screwed up. Some examples:
-Flawed logic boards
-Audio bugs in the G5 towers
-The flaming 5300 laptops

Now, to be fair, I think Apple screws up proportionally less than most other manufacturers, and especially the software-oriented ones. Microsoft is a clumsy, club-footed klutz by comparison.

They used the iPod as example because more people know what an iPod is then a USB flash stick. Plus look at how much smaller it is to say. The flash sticks have multiple meanings from camras to the USB pen drives. A lot of people dont know what a pen drive is. Yeah a lot of people know what it is but it going to take them a second longer to figure it out. iPod is instantly known.

Wait.

You admit that flash drives are more ubiquitous and come in a variety of forms that might make security harder, but it's more valid to just talk about one? What happened to standards of journalism? If there's a risk from higher capacity removable media, it's more responsible to talk about the easily recognized ones (flash drives that are built into things like watches, pens, thumb drives, cards, and other objects come to mind) than a music player that can also be used as a hard drive.

Who's the one unjustifiably defending something?

Typic macci view is Microsoft is bad. I know people who refused to get a mac not because they think windows is better but because they hate the nut cases who are blind idiots who refuse to see both sides.

Their loss, then. I don't let the followers of a particular product or idealogy prevent me from doing what's best for me.

 

[Timelessblur]

well honstly I can not blame them. It is there loss but you are an example of why I hate die hard macci. Most of them are idiots and know jack. They believe anythign MS is bad. Anything apple says as word and perficly true something negitive said about apple they flame a way. I can show you several thread here alone that show that case and point.

I hate die hard windows fan boys for the same reason. Same for the linus fan boys. But I will say I think the Macci ones are afaul and they are easier to find than the others. The typic Macci is blind to the computer world and does not see anything MS does as good.

You turned my words around. I think some showed earily that this site is typical about doing this stuff. Oh and by the way to the computer the iPod all those flash sticks are the exact same thing. They are removed drives. Size does not matter. To the computer it is still just a removeble drive. Basicl all they did was add in a way to prevent removed drives from working.


So think again

 

[James L]

I must agree with the people who say that Apple apologists have blinders on when it comes to this discussion topic. I have been a Mac user since 1986, but I think they have screwed up, and commited underhanded business dealings, tons of times.

M$ does no more of a job of trying to discredit Apple then Apple does by doing stuff like posting "Redding, we have a problem" posters at conventions. Each is a business, and they are in competition with each other. Welcome to the free market. Steve slams M$ on a regular basis in interviews and keynotes, why can't M$ do it in return?

And besides, this article wasn't even written by M$. Surely there are better things to do then to see conspiracy theories in something as stupid as an article on computer stuff?

 

[mactastic]

Apple really, really need to reduce this to a few checkboxes in the user preferences so that normal customers can reasonably protect themselves.

They've done a reasonable job of it. Non-admin access to a simple finder interface with the Open Firmware password set and you should be pretty safe. I imagine you can't stop all viruses from entering your system that way, but your data should be pretty safe. Oh and you could use File Vault if you're really worried about someone swiping your data (and you keep password-protected .dmg images of your files handy).

 

[iMeowbot]

They've done a reasonable job of it. Non-admin access to a simple finder interface with the Open Firmware password set and you should be pretty safe.

Not really. There is much more to this security thing than most end users realize.

The Simple Finder is not really a security mechanism, it's just what it says it is, a simplified Finder. It's nice that the CD burning software is hidden, but that does nothing to prevent a user from plugging in an external drive and opening and saving files to and from it.

Was a Web browser made available in that user's Simple Finder? How about any other program that will allow a user to type in an URL and start it from the Services menu, like, say, TextEdit? (Just type in telnet:blah, highlight it, then Open URL from the Service menu, and there is Terminal ready to do anything you like, and the Simple Finder has been completely bypassed.) Is there any other program available that can start a browser without the Services menu, like any Adobe programs that use IE to display help? If so, all the normal programs are available. There is a reason why Simple Finder only mentions "directly use" as its restriction.

I imagine you can't stop all viruses from entering your system that way,

This has little if anything to do with virus problems, really. The problem is a much more straightforward matter of data security.

but your data should be pretty safe. Oh and you could use File Vault if you're really worried about someone swiping your data (and you keep password-protected .dmg images of your files handy).

File Vault is fine for protecting individual user accounts. By its nature, it does nothing at all to prevent shared software or data from being stolen, and it does not prevent unwanted content from being opened from a removable drive and saved in shared folders.

These bypasses and file transfer examples are all of the most straightforward variety, I'm not even bothering to mention the more creative possibilities when there are massive holes right out of the box.

 

[GroundLoop]

The US Navy is using xServe clusters, hardened for military applications, to navigate some of the nuclear sub fleet and do sonar imaging.

I can tell you that this is false. Macs are being considered for quite a few defense programs, but there hasn't been a Mac -fielded- on any Naval asset. While LM had purchased and received the xServes it will be a few years before the systems are developed, tested, and installed on the ships.

Hickman

 

[thatwendigo]

well honstly I can not blame them. It is there loss but you are an example of why I hate die hard macci. Most of them are idiots and know jack.

You hate people who have built PCs, fix them for other people, but who choose to use macs instead because they prefer them? How enlightened of you. The fact that I dislike Microsoft with a passion has a reasoned basis, but you're assuming things without even asking.

They believe anythign MS is bad.

Most of it is. Point out to me something open, fair, and usable in the market that Microsoft has done. Apple routinely sends code back upstream to the OpenSource community, adding to projects like Konquerer, Darwin, and other options that people can adopt for themselves.

Anything apple says as word and perficly true something negitive said about apple they flame a way.

I admitted Apple has made mistakes in the past, but you won't admit that the article shows a clear flaw. How ironic that you're doing what you're complaining about.

But I will say I think the Macci ones are afaul and they are easier to find than the others.

One word, two syllables: SlashDot.

You turned my words around. I think some showed earily that this site is typical about doing this stuff. Oh and by the way to the computer the iPod all those flash sticks are the exact same thing. They are removed drives. Size does not matter. To the computer it is still just a removeble drive. Basicl all they did was add in a way to prevent removed drives from working.

The only "turning around" I did was showing how your statement that the iPod was easier to toss into an article was bad journalism. The threat is from removable media in general, not from the iPod in particular, and a good reporter would have made sure to point that out. I never made a claim that other media were any less relevant - quite the contrary, in fact.

Oh, and this has been a problem forever, since floppies allowed it before external drives did. It's just that the capacity is becoming a threat again.

 

[Fukui]

Macci is blind to the computer world and does not see anything MS does as good.

Who's macci ??!! And how do you pronounce it? Machi? Maki?

 

[mactastic]

File Vault is fine for protecting individual user accounts. By its nature, it does nothing at all to prevent shared software or data from being stolen, and it does not prevent unwanted content from being opened from a removable drive and saved in shared folders.

These bypasses and file transfer examples are all of the most straightforward variety, I'm not even bothering to mention the more creative possibilities when there are massive holes right out of the box.

All I'm interested in is my data anyway. If you put data in a shared folder, are you not by definition making it less secure than if you kept it yourself?