MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Dec 21, 07 - 10:27 am Comment from: silverhawk

Charlie Miller is a idiot and Independent Security Evaluators would be out of business if it weren't for windows.

Dec 21, 07 - 10:27 am Comment from: Ampar

Independent Security Evaluators = Ruinously devastated pertinence.

Sorry Charlie.

Dec 21, 07 - 10:30 am Comment from: Gandalf

Let's hope the US military doesn't take too much of a fancy to them, anyone remember this:

"The Power Mac G4 is so fast that it is classified as a supercomputer by the U.S. government, and we are prohibited from exporting it to over 50 nations worldwide," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim chief executive officer.

CNet, September 17, 1999

Dec 21, 07 - 10:31 am Comment from: Gandalf

Oops, that should be CNN

Dec 21, 07 - 10:32 am Comment from: peaPod

If I made money securing peecee's, I'd diss Mac's too.

Dec 21, 07 - 10:40 am Comment from: Ampar

"My philosophy? A hundred-dollar shine on a three-dollar pair of shoes."

Be all that you can be, with Apple.

The United States Army: Be Apple Strong.

Dec 21, 07 - 10:56 am Comment from: Ampar

Independent Security Evaluators.
The few, the proud, the maroons.

Independent Security Evaluators
Your Fear. Our Fortune.

Greenberg's article is wrong about CAC. I've been using CAC with my Mac for over a year. OS X 10.4 and 10.5 have CAC reader drivers pre-installed, and Keychain handles the rest. On my Dell at work, we had to use multiple 3rd party add-ons to Windows in order to get CAC to work. Additionally, Macs can currently perform CAC log-in:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304035

My Mac was hacked by the US. Military.

Why? Because I blogged certain details about a black bag operation in the Florida Keys involving "american speaking soldiers with funny wires sticking out of their arms" and "bodies washing up on shore" "survivers calling for their mother" (code of some sort)

I kid you not. With all the security issues of Mac OS X over the last year, Mac's only GIVE THE ILLUSION OF SECURITY.

The military has a saying, "if it emits a signal, we can crack it".

That's a fact.

Dec 21, 07 - 11:52 am Comment from: Macromancer

""The marketing pitch that Apples are inherently more secure than PCs is also largely a myth, "

Apple doesn't heavily market this. It's mostly anecdotal information from users.

Dec 21, 07 - 11:59 am Comment from: iamdj

@Spooked:

Not sure what you are trying to say, but it is scary none the less.

Dec 21, 07 - 12:01 pm Comment from: Cubert

@Spooked,
Give us more info, please. How was your Mac hacked? How did you find out? What proof do you have?

Spooked writes, "My Mac was hacked by the US Military." Yeah, but if true it took the resources of a military cyber team to do it. If you were running Windows, it would take only a script kiddie working out of his mother's basement.

General Boutelle's speech calling for "more diversity" shows at least someone understands the danger of a Windows based mono-culture. And if we're talking "mission critical", would you want to rely on UNIX-based OS X, or Windows XP/Vista?

A few offices within the FBI and some intelligence agencies are slowly moving to Mac, but the seriously dysfunctional Dept. of Homeland Security remains overwhelmingly a Windows shop. That is something to keep one awake at night.

Dec 21, 07 - 12:06 pm Comment from: Ampar

"Mac's only GIVE THE ILLUSION OF SECURITY."


I had a feeling that David Copperfield was behind this. There's some serious ganja going around on these threads lately.

Dec 21, 07 - 12:08 pm Comment from: Ampar

"Dept. of Homeland Security remains overwhelmingly a Windows shop."


We are being attacked. Do you wish to retaliate?

. . . . . . Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow? Cancel or Allow?

Osama Bin Laden uses a MAC, that is why the he has not been captured even with all the resources of the USA military.

You say"""The marketing pitch that Apples are inherently more secure than PCs is also largely a myth, "

Apple doesn't heavily market this. It's mostly anecdotal information from users."

I am curious as to where you are getting your information. Are you saying that Macs are easy to hack?

I have to say that every hacker that has ever gotten into a Mac, wheather by application, personally on the machine or by trojan and getting a person to allow the hack has quickly posted their hack and proof.

so why are we not seeing mega hacking on the Mac?????

Just curious.

en

I almost wish their servers WOULD go down so they can't continue giving orders to slaughter people in Iraq or manage an invasion of Iran, but anyway.

Dec 21, 07 - 12:35 pm Comment from: DLMeyer

Hey, Spooked, maybe you should consider blogging (surfing, etc) from a USER account. At least that would make hacking your system interesting. Now ... perhaps you could provide a little proof that it was a Mac that was hacked and not just a figment of your fevered imagination? Saying it does not make it true, and even the truth is not always what it is purported to be.
Dave

Macs don't need third-party software to support CAC cards. OS X supports them out of the box.

Dec 21, 07 - 03:30 pm Comment from: ChrisW357

Quietly working to integrate OS X systems into the military, eh?

Not quietly enough, evidently, if MDN got wind of it.

Me skeptical.

++





PHILLP, You are an idiot. Slaughter people? and what do the muslims do? Bake cookies? Seems like the nice muslims over there like us and want us there. The bad evil ones don't want us there. Seems YOU side with evil ones. What does that make you?






.

Dec 21, 07 - 06:47 pm Comment from: LorD1776

Steve,

That makes him capable of independent thought. Something you apparently aren't.

Steve,

You are the Right one... That a$$ clown forgets the reason why he is free to think like he does....

I almost wish their servers WOULD go down so they can't continue giving orders to slaughter people in Iraq or manage an invasion of Iran, but anyway.

Remember, those same servers would be used to manage an Iraq pullout and order our troops home. You can't have it both ways, sir.

Not to mention the mere wish of cutting off communications to your troops should be considered treasonous; soldiers who lose their communications die.

Perhaps the preventable, needless loss of many more American lives is your thing?

Seems that George did pay my emails some attention after all.

Dec 21, 07 - 10:17 pm Comment from: MacRaven

An Army of one--Apple.

Bush uses Apple - ouch!

@DLMeyer

Check with the Fisherman's Hospital in Marathon Key, Florida. That's where the soldiers were taken and where my information came from. You might have to ask around to catch someone who knows, it was about 3 years or so ago.

The hack came shortly after blogging the info to a another Mac site, a very nice female (operative) befriended me online and trojaned me with a file. I of course double-clicked on it because "Mac's were so secure" yada yada. Didn't require a admin password, so it didn't raise any suspicions at first.

I started thinking it was rare for a woman to take a interest in a guy unseen online, in short order like that, much less send a file out of the blue. (how they got my email addy remains a mystery, perhaps a ISP trace?)

Mac OS X was still rather niche and more secure back then, perhaps not a lot of hacking done on it via remote, so I don't think it was possible to get in that way. I was running a solid wire to the internet, no wireless at the time. I guess they were in a hurry to see how much I knew and who I told so they were sloppy just enough or not good with Mac's yet. Mac's always have been pretty solid, so I double-clicked the file, it wasn't anything but a simple database for Appleworks. I then trashed it.

Well I had my suspicions and had a security expert friend of mine take a look at my machine, he discovered a root level process that was routinely contacting certain "reserved" government IP address range. I just upgraded Mac OS X to a newer version, I think it was Panther, and the machine was fresh install. Never received a file or even downloaded anything beforehand. So I know it came from that Appleworks database file.

How the exploit worked, how it got root remains a mystery. (now we know of course it went public 2 years later)

We just wiped the hard drive, switched ISP's and went on with our lives.

So there you go, one hacked Mac. They got root right away. Sure it took a little help from me, but I unboxed the machine, turned it on and connected to the internet too. So perhaps if I didn't do that it wouldn't got hacked either right?

One should expect to use a computer as normal without any exploits occurring, including downloading and opening files without it gaining root access.

Dec 22, 07 - 10:18 am Comment from: LorD1776

ron,

"Bush uses Apple - ouch!"

Bush uses everybody. It's what he does.

Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties.
--George W. Bush

discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, as quoted by Robertson

Dec 23, 07 - 08:13 pm Comment from: LorD1776

Geez, and between them not two brain cells to rub together.
I'll bet that was one hell of an intelligent conversation:

Pat: Georgie, you need to kill everyone of those evil heathens.
God told me to tell you. He's depending on you, son.

George: Really Uncle Pat? Heh heh! Well, I won't let y'all down,
bygolly. I'm yer man. Uh, who do I gotta kill?

American leadership at it's finest.

Dec 25, 07 - 09:50 am Comment from: Beeblebrox

"discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, as quoted by Robertson"

This is a myth and, were you talking about the Mac you would call it FUD. Stop repeating lies.

And to the traitor Phillip, in case you have not been able to get news for the past 4 months, we are winning the battle in Iraq. Furthermore, we are clearly winning the war against Islamic Jihadism.

Wake up dude.

@Beeblebrox
Nobody is a traitor for saying that they don't want American soldiers dying, or for just speaking their mind.

mw national, as in I have enough National pride to speak my mind, and think for myself.