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nightsurge on 31 March 2009
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famousringo said:
nightsurge said:

Wrong.......if the Open firmware password is set you can not simply use the OS X install disc to boot the machine and change the password......not without knowing the existing password first. Now how is that less secure then a BIOS password that requires you to know the existing BIOS password before you can change it?

 

Ok so this Open Firmware password must be set to prevent me from using the OS X disc, then. How many average, uninformed Mac purchasers do you think knows to set this up? All I am saying, which you two keep missing, is that the Mac is much more vulnerable to a very simple attack. You cannot simply use a Windows OS disc to break into any Windows PC like I can do with a Mac (unless Open Firmware password is set).

 

 

You're right. If an intelligent and informed IT professional like yourself has no clue how to securely lock down a Mac, Joe Blow isn't going to be able to figure it out either.

Of course, if we asked Joe Blow how concerned he was about somebody putting a boot disc into his PC and changing his password, he'd probably be more concerned about the intruder breaking into his home/office than which operating system he was running.

Luckily... and yes I mean luckily... my experiences with Macs in the work force as an IT professional has been very limited.  It seems most places I have worked for has realized the lack of benefits from using Macs, and thus only a handful of them exist in our department.  Actually, with the Macs we have reaching about 3-6 years old now, they are looking at being replaced with PC's now, since they discovered there was no benefits to purchasing a new Mac.