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.'"

Comments

OMG Terrorists will attack Macs!

[davidwr]

Now that terrorists know the Army uses Macs expect to see terrorist Mac-Hack attempts go up.

Seriously, out of the box neither Microsoft, MacOS, nor non-hardened Linux is designed to be a secure OS.

For security, either work with Apple or Microsoft to harden the system out of the box, start with SELinux or a hardened BSD, or up the ante and use a mainframe or other system designed from the ground up with military-grade hardening in mind.

Of course, even a partial air gap or strong firewall helps too.