Showing posts with label Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Security. Show all posts

Sunday, 5 August 2012

Encryption Scheme-Removable Drives-Contextual Menu-Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion 101: Finder encryption via contextual menu (updated)

[Post updated, see below.] Whole-drive encryption isn't one of the sexiest features in OS X, but it's nice to know it's there. FileVault 2 (introduced in Lion; the original FileVault began in 10.3 Panther) can be very useful, especially for Mac users with sensitive information on their hard drives. The ability to lock down either a boot disk or a removable drive means additional security for Mac users when they need it. In Mountain Lion, Apple has made the encryption process easier and faster by adding a contextual menu option to the Finder. Removable drives can be encrypted simply by choosing the Encrypt option when you right-click (or control-click, or two-finger click -- we need a better word for that task) the drive icon. Note that only drives with a GUID partitioning setting can be encrypted, and the resulting encrypted volumes can only be read on other Macs running Lion or Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion also adds encryption as an option for Time Machine backups, and there's a new command-line tool (fdesetup, well-described by Rich Trouton) that allows third-party tools and system administrators to monitor and adjust FileVault settings. ML's FileVault can sync credentials with a directory system in enterprise environments, and the overall encryption scheme is in the process of certification under the US government's FIPS 140-2 standard, appropriate for "sensitive but unclassified information." Encrypting removable drives is now three-clicks easy, but if you want to encrypt your startup disk completely the process has not changed markedly from Lion. Head into System Preferences under Security & Privacy and choose the FileVault menu. You will need to turn on FileVault there. You'll also need to make sure Recovery HD is installed on your hard drive. It should have been when you first installed your system, but it may not have if something went wrong. Then you'll need to have a password for all users using the encryption. Once you activate FileVault, you'll get a recovery key, which is a last-ditch effort to recover your files if your password is lost or forgotten. After that, your files are locked down. You can use the computer normally, but if you ever lose your password and that recovery key (or if someone tries to sneak in without those), your files won't be accessible. There is an option to save the key with Apple itself, but you'll have to answer some other security questions to retrieve it. FileVault also offers an "instant wipe" feature, which will wipe the encryption key and all of your files from your Mac. So if you do encrypt your files and ever need to pass it on to someone else, you can be sure none of your secrets will make the trip. FileVault is a powerful feature, and if you need to keep a secret, it can make an important task very simple. Update: Clarified that the new features in Mountain Lion are the Finder contextual menu, encrypted TM backups and the command-line fdesetup tool, not the underlying FileVault 2 encryption. Our apologies for the mixup.Mountain Lion 101: Finder encryption via contextual menu (updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..

Monday, 7 May 2012

Security Encryption Software-Security Hole-Filevault-Lion

Apple’s Lion Security Hole Could Be A Wider Issue Than Just FileVault?

As you may have seen over the weekend, someone has discovered a security hole in FileVault, which arose with the OS X Lion security update, version 10.7.3, back in February: FileVault encryption passwords are now visible in plain text outside of a computer's encrypted area.The hole was apparently spotted by someone back in February, although it was most publicly first pointed out by security consultant David Emery on the Cryptome blog a few days ago and the rest of the blogosphere has run with it.Now, it appears that the problem could be bigger than previously thought: it turns out that the developer who first noticed the hole back in February has discovered that it exists outside of FileVault, too, with at least one other company's security encryption software, Lion VM, from VMWare Fusion, showing the same behavior. read more..

Saturday, 21 April 2012

Unofficial Apple Weblog-Flashback Infections

Flashback infections down from over half a million to under 150,000 in eight days

According to Symantec, the OSX.Flashback.K infection is declining each day. The current number of infected Macs is now around 140,000, down from 600,000 a week ago. If you think you may be infected, you can run a Flashback removal tool from either Kapersky or F-Secure. Apple also has a tool for Lion users without Java installed. OS X users should install the latest Java update from Apple which will protect you from a future infection.Flashback infections down from over half a million to under 150,000 in eight days originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..

Sunday, 8 April 2012

Malicious Website-Trojan

How to find/remove the Flashback trojan

According to Russian antivirus firm Dr. Web, over 600,000 Macs worldwide are infected with the Mac flashback trojan. The trojan can be installed if you visit a malicious website, and it will attempt to connect your Mac to a botnet. Fifty-seven percent of infected machines are located in the US and 20 percent are in Canada. There are even 24 infected machines supposedly connected to the botnet from Apple's Cupertino campus. This trojan targets a Java vulnerability in Mac OS X that was recently patched. It should be noted that in OS X 10.7 Lion, Java isn't included by default; only those who have deliberately installed it are potentially vulnerable to this exploit (or those running Snow Leopard or earlier OS X versions). If you installed it at some point but no longer have a reason to run Java, you should probably turn it off completely or at a minimum disable it in Safari. F-Secure has provided a set of diagnostics that'll let you know if you have been infected. If you have the malware on your machine, F-Secure's page can walk you through the steps to remove the infection. Thanks to everyone who sent this in. [Via The Loop]How to find/remove the Flashback trojan originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..