Protect Data In A Macintosh Environment

Messaging

OS X Server 10.4 and beyond is equipped with embedded iChat Server. Developed on the jabber protocol, Mac OS X Server has the ability to farm jabber services to any jabber-able client; this includes iChat, Adium X on Mac OS X, and Trillian for Windows. Your employees are able to communicate with each other on the network, or with remote access, to exchange files, text, and audiovisual chat. It's all able to be administrated from Mac OS X's Open Directory. Enabling the service on the X Admin application is a simple process. Sysadmins are able to encrypt by making a self-signed certificate or by simply going with a vendor such as GoDaddy or Verisign - to encrypt all IM communications. The best thing is that there aren't any client access license limitations. You may even already use an Active Directory system; if so, no problem. Just merge OS X to Active Directory, and use the AD credentials to IM with the iChat.

Content

A profile or group is able to be managed locally or on the OS X Server. This lets sysadmins block users from particular websites, even allowing the creation of an all-inclusive list of sites which employees are allowed to visit. If you already have Web Filtering by Postini in use, consider using it in tandem with the OS X policy to restrict undesirable content away from your employees' web browsers.

Security

You really should be proactive about the security of your small business, and that's exactly why OS X is complete with secure encryption of nearly all aspects of the user's experience. Three top ways to maintain safe and secure data include:

1) File Vault can encrypt the whole profile or folder into a disk image which is kept on the local system, protected by password.

2) Applemail and Entourage are both able to be modified for certificates which are self-signed or commercial-verified. Thawte provides free certificates by email, and other companies supply the same at low cost. This can allow workers to transmit encrypted email amongst each other as clients.

3) Keychain assistant, built into OS X, provides easy ways to store credentials in a high-security encrypted area, automatically.

The keychain created by OS X is pre-set to unlock after logging in, and lock again upon logging out. This allows users to keep passwords and other credentials secure. Apple's password assistant shows you the encryption strength of a password live as it is being selected. The user can develop the benefit of Keychain assistant by creating secure keychain notes manually, even adding several keychains devoted to storing certain kinds of passwords, software serial numbers, personal info, etc.

Archives

As you probably have an incredible number of emails or locally-stored files, it may be difficult for the newbie user to search for a particular file or email. Fortunately, OS X 10.4 comes with Spotlight, which PC-users can really only be prepared for using with prerequisite knowledge of Google Desktop or Windows Vista search tools. Spotlight is able to locate files by name, content, or file type. It's even able to do a boolean query, like 'apple .xls' to find Excel spreadsheets with 'apple' in the name. Spotlight can also be extended by the use of valuable plugins.