A few days ago I wrote an article titled "illusions of security". We got quite a bit of response on it.

Some of the response came from vendors, but the point of the article was to try to create awareness at the staff of those (third party) vendors, the salespersons working in shops, administrators and users of computers that there is no such thing as an invulnerable computer.

Some responses were pointers to tools on how to secure Mac OS X and that part does have merits to do a follow-up. Perhaps the security community needs to learn a bit more of Mac OS X. I count myself as one of those who still needs to learn more about OS X. One way to learn more is to know what is available.

So some recommendations from our readers:

• An anti-spyware program: MacScan
• A free virusscanner: ClamXav
• Some well known windows vendors have Mac OS X versions: Symantec, McAfee and Sophos
• Although OS X has a built in firewall, there are third party solutions for it such as Intego NetBarrier, Pliris Firewalk, Sustainable Softworks IPNetSentryX and Objective Development Little Snitch.

NOTE: this is not a recommendation from myself, the handler or SANS. It's just a list gathered from feedback of our readers, use at your own risk.

I'm actually sure there's more out there but we'll leave it as an excercise for our readers to find it for themselves.

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Swa Frantzen