Understanding Maintenance

Maintenance on Mac OS X all comes down to doing your homework through updates to your applications, operating system, and security safeguards. Checking Apple-specific security sites is an excellent way to stay on top of events that may have an impact on computers within your organization. Here are some websites that provide information relevant to Macintosh computers:

• Apple product security: www.apple.com/support/security/index.html

• Apple security mailing list: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/security-announce

• SecureMac: www.securemac.com

• Macintosh Security: www.macintoshsecurity.com

You should also have an arsenal of general security websites as resources to find information about potential threats to your computers and your system. The following offer late-breaking information on other security matters, such as network security, security standards, and potential threats:

• U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability: www.ciac.org/ciac

• Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute: www.cert.org

• U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology Computer Security Resource Center: http://csrc.nist.gov

• The Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security: www.cerias.purdue.edu

• SANS Institute: www.sans.org/aboutsans.php

What if you have already been the victim of an attack? AFP548.com is a website devoted to Mac OS X Server, but in recent years it has become a premier site for all things Mac OS X. You'll find discussions of security issues, as well as articles devoted to locking down and monitoring your system, and what to do if you've experienced an attack. You can find more information about this at www.afp548.com/Articles/security/postmortem.html.

Developing a good security policy is the best way to manage your users and systems. Coming up with that policy can be a daunting task, as you balance personal freedom with company policy, outside threats, inside threats, and legal repercussions. You should add these websitesdevoted to guiding administrators into these watersto your list of frequently visited places:

• National Security Agency: www.nsa.gov

  Security Guidance for Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.3 Server, and Mac OS X 10.4 (forthcoming)

• Defense Information Systems Agency: www.disa.mil

• Center for Internet Security: www.cisecurity.org

• National Institute of Standards and Technology, Computer Security Resource Center: http://csrc.nist.gov

• National Institute of Standards and Technology, Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme: http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/index.html

No matter where you get your information, be aware of how Apple institutes its policies regarding certain vulnerabilities and security updates. Apple is a member of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), www.first.org, which handles security incidents as a group. When Apple posts a security notice, CERT distributes it simultaneously.

Performing Security Updates

Software Update allows Apple to send the latest security updates to the operating system and system software, and install them. Run Software Update regularly so that every computer checks with the Apple servers for all available updates to the system software, applications, and utilities installed on each system. Software Update can be run manually, or you can configure it to open on a set schedule.

Note

Using Software Update may require an active connection to the Internet if a Software Update server is not available.

You can also proactively check for security updates from Apple by visiting http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798.

Software Update updates only those programs that Apple publishes or supports. Since any given system probably has an array of third-party programs also in use, it is important to check individual third-party websites for any security or version updates available for their programs.