Two of Apple’s list of 300+ Leopard features “leapt off the page,” headed right straight at Blackfriars’ Marketing’s Carl Howe:
Tagging Downloaded Applications
Protect yourself from potential threats. Any application downloaded to your Mac is tagged. Before it runs for the first time, the system asks for your consent — telling you when it was downloaded, what application was used to download it, and, if applicable, what URL it came from.
Signed Applications
Feel safe with your applications. A digital signature on an application verifies its identity and ensures its integrity. All applications shipped with Leopard are signed by Apple, and third-party software developers can also sign their applications.
Howe writes, “Those features jumped out at me because the very first Forrester report I wrote in 1996 was about desktop security and the threat of active content. In that report, I wrote that if you want a truly secure platform, you need both app signing and run-time validation to guarantee that you only run trusted code. I further noted that Windows would never become a truly secure platform without these features. The fact that these features they are built into Leopard says that even as Macs gain in popularity, Apple has no intent of letting its OS or its iPhone become an easy security target. And these two features are worth the entire cost of upgrade and more to anyone worried about desktop and server security.“
“Users will have to designate each [application] as trusted the first time they run them,” Howe explains, “[but] it’s a small one-time price for a more secure system. And it’s better to start now than waiting until there are 100 or 200 million Leopard computers in the field.”
“It’s nice to see Apple not only talk about platform security, but to actually do something about it. And the fact that the millions of iPhones in the world will be both 1) open and 2) secure because they use the same secure foundation says volumes about their bright future,” Howe writes. “Nice work, Apple.”
Full article here.
OK, the guy has a point. But … I’ve never had a problem with anything I’ve downloaded on my Mac. Can’t even browse “safe” sites with Windows, but can even check out <strike>porn</strike> art work with a Mac.
Spaces … <sigh> … give me Spaces.
Dave
– ZFS
– MacBook nano
– Leopard’s user interface
– iTouch tablet
– Tagging downloads
– UNIX 3 certified Leopard
– Bootcamp
Apple is/will be, slowly putting the pieces together to make major inroads into the business market place.
What a load of crap. Yeah security is really going to get my juices going. Certainly enough to get me to fork out the $100+… or perhaps not!!! Don’t get me wrong, I love OS X. i think it’s far superior to Windows, but come on… all the comments you see such as “oh thank God the wait is over” and “I’ll finally be able t sleep at night”. these guys really need help surely!!! Or perhaps need friends and a social life. GET A GRIP!!! It’s an operating system for Pete’s sake!!!
Will it also do that through Parallels making Mac the safest way to run Windows?
Cool but…..
“Signed Applications
Feel safe with your applications. A digital signature on an application verifies its identity and ensures its integrity. All applications shipped with Leopard are signed by Apple, and third-party software developers can also sign their applications.”
Anyone ever hear of “Signed Drivers” for windows? I dont see that helping anyone, just click OKAY INSTALL ANYWAY…….
I need Leopard for MANY MANY MANY MANY reasons and its worthy!
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iPhone: as secure as visiting a website with a tiff-image and giving root acces to a mac-friendly hacker.
It’s a real disappointment there still is no patch, though i love my third party apps.
I could be wrong, but doesn’t Vista do this already? Someone enlighten please? Thanks.
I’m tired of articles.
Yes, these security features aren’t as important now as they will be a few years from now when Mac will have over 20% market share.
@steve
Security may not get your “juices going,” but if you use a machine that becomes corrupt, shutting down at random times, erasing your data, and all kinds of nastiness that can plague a computer because some piece of software you assumed was legitimate wasn’t, will you then scream and curse, asking why the hell wasn’t the operating system built to be more secure?
Security is easy to forget or overlook until you need it, by which time it is too late because your system has already been breached. Security is not “sexy”: There are no multi-player, shoot-em-up security games, nor does security have nice breasts. But if you want to continue using your computer the way you have always used it, without having to worry about some hacker or virus writer making your life miserable–or costing you thousands of dollars because all the data for that presentation you’ve been working on for weeks has been trashed by a virus–then you may want to take a kinder, more enthusiastic view of security.
Mark
Oh, and ditto regarding iWoz’s comment about the Mac’s (and the iPhone, iTouch, and whatever other devices Apple develops) marketshare.
What is this? Over-enthusiasm from a convert from Windows? Long-time Mac users have never lost sleep over the security of Mac OS X.
MDN MW: truth
as in
The truth is that these two features are just the cherry on an already deliciously iced cake.
An awesome preemptive strike against virus bearing software.
Now if y’all click click run aways when Leopard tells you software is unsigned….you get what you deserve. Same goes with Java apps and certs.
Just my $0.02
Okay I got a legitimate question. So is this better than what Vista has been touting regarding their version of this? Or do they not have this implemented at all?
Okay, so tagging sounds nice, but the Mac OS already tags the date of install as “date created”, and the apps themselves usually contain their origins under “About” in the FILE menu. How much more info do I really need? And why is a digital signature any better than the current system that warns “The file you have downloaded contains an application. Do you wish to continue?” and then requires my Admin password to install?
The only person I can see these features impressing might be a Windows user. Perhaps that’s why the writer singled them out in his article. But for the longtime Mac user, who has never had a single virus/trojan, it’s simply an added and mostly unnecessary level of frustration.
I’d say that this is important for businesses — and that’s who Apple’s going after next. Sounds like it also provides a trackback so if something goes screwy with the install or operation you can easily figure out where it came from.
Also the education market — Apple lost market share to cheap-@$$ Dells and Gateways, but now that schools are finding their computers are spam-magnets they’re going to want something better.
Yeah, Brau, it’s another PITA step but for a lot of folks out there it’s important.
Ever actually looked at the process for getting your drivers signed, or apps?
It is incredibly easy as there is almost no review process, at least none we ever encountered. Request a cert, get a cert.
I am reasonably sure Apple is going to take a completely different route with this.
Apple is at it again, stealing ideas from Microsoft. Typical.
@ eMax: What @eMax said! Why do I have a feeling something more than a basic ADC membership might be required for signatures? Same for trusted iPhone apps.
Already, downloads by Safari 3.0.3 beta (and maybe before) warn of an application being downloaded, even Windows .exe files and PHP scripts! When a Google search takes me somewhere I didn’t want to go, and a little .exe tries to download in the background, Safari warns me and I can abort the bugger. On Windows, they just install and take over.
If people install anyway, then they’re being stupid. The user is always the weakest link in computer security, and there’s not much anyone can do other than try to make them stop and think. If they choose not to, well, it’s their own fault if their computer gets pwned.
@ Justme2
Thanks for a well thought out response.
@ZuneTang
MS security pop-up:
The file you have downloaded contains a non-MicroSoft third party application. Do you wish to continue?
(Deny)(Deny)
I was going to pre-order Leopard this week and some lowdown son-of-a-!@*% used my credit card number to make an illegal $991 purchase. Since my wife and I share the account we don’t have a clue how they did it. At least the bank caught it but now I have to wait till next week to get a new card. Bummer.
@Steve
You said: “What a load of crap. Yeah security is really going to get my juices going. Certainly enough to get me to fork out the $100+… or perhaps not!!! Don’t get me wrong, I love OS X. i think it’s far superior to Windows, but come on… all the comments you see such as “oh thank God the wait is over” and “I’ll finally be able t sleep at night”. these guys really need help surely!!! Or perhaps need friends and a social life. GET A GRIP!!! It’s an operating system for Pete’s sake!!!”
For some people (myself included) most of our lives (cough…jobs…cough) consists of working on a computer. For those of us who are lucky enough to play AND work on a Mac, this means that the majority of our time will be enhanced. That’s something to get excited about surely.
And poopooing all over people’s excitement over certain things is just absurd. Ever sat in a room where people were jumping up and down and cheering because some tall guy put a rubber ball through a hoop?
Ummm, people, am I the only one that has noticed that the first time you run ANY application, OS X pops up a dialog telling you it’s the first time that application is being run and asks if you want to continue? It has been this way since at least 10.2 Jaguar. This is nothing new and is not specific to Leopard in any way.
Windows had a feature like this and it does not work as users will be come desensitized of these signatures and will download the apps no matter what.
This security model does not work!
I will get Leopard for better reasons.
Sorry Howe