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Army Buys Macs to Beef Up Security
agent_blue writes "The Army is integrating Macs into their IT network to thwart hack attempts. The Mac platform, they argue, is more secure because there are fewer attacks against OS X than Windows-based systems. 'Military procurement has long been driven by cost and availability of additional software--two measures where Macintosh computers have typically come up short against Windows-based PCs. Then there have been subtle but important barriers: For instance, Macintosh computers have long been incompatible with a security keycard-reading system known as Common Access Cards system, or CAC, which is heavily used by the military. The Army's Apple program, created [in 2005], is working to change that.'"
http://www.serverwatch.com/news/article.php/201361
:)
i always liked the idea...
from the article: "Until the Army's Web site was hacked in late June by a 19-year old Wisconsin man, the site had been using a Microsoft Windows NT-based Web server..."
The clear majority of the really high end computer security people I know are driving Macs. On the military side Army and Marines seem to be tinkering more with Linux. The Marines less so because of NMCI, but there was a demo of battlefield information system that was Linux based. Navy and Marines have pretty much locked themselves into Windows desktops managed by EDS on the administrative side. A move I believe will go down as one of the great defeats in Naval history, with casualties of 250 million American taxpayers.
Don't know about the Air Force but the few AF people I've met at conferences seemed pretty on the ball and struck me as Linux curious if not outright supporters.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
About five years ago I was doing a training session/presentation for IT staff at an Army base where I was told that the Army would never use anything other than Windows. I made the mistake of referring to Linux, Mac OSX and open source software during the presentation which caused some folks in the room to get upset with me. I remember a comment about hell freezing over first. I guess hell is a bit colder today.