As with any operating system, one of the first steps in securing a newly installed machine is installing any required patches from the manufacturer. In the case of Mac OS X this means either running Software Update, or downloading the update(s) from Apple's support site.

Depending on how you receive the default install of Mac OS X, it may be set to automatically log in a user upon startup. This is generally considered contrary to good security policy. To change this setting, one must open System Preferences and select the Login icon. When the panel resolves, select the Login Window tab. On this page, there's a check box labeled "Automatically log in" deselect it. Below is a radio button group labeled "Display Login Windows as: " administrators may want to make sure this is set to "Name and password entry fields" so usernames are not enumerated at the login screen.

As an added step in account safety, it is best to set the computer's screen saver to ask a user for their authentication information when waking the screen saver. This is done through the Screen Savers panel of System Preferences. To enable this feature, select the "Use my use account password" radio button from the Activation tab.

No modern consumer operating system installation should be without some form of virus protection. While having a Unix-based access control system can reduce the risk of damage from worms and viruses (by removing regular users' ability to modify applications and sensitive data), it does not eliminate the risk. No matter how careful an administrator has secured a machine with permissions, there are ways even these controls can be circumvented. It is, therefore, diligent for administrators to install and configure and an anti-virus agent on their systems.

Symantec, McAfee, and Sophos are all currently shipping Mac OS X compatible versions of their anti-virus products. The choice of which of these to use is up to the administrator and their budget. The University current licenses Sophos Antivirus for all Students, Staff, and Faculty. It can be downloaded free of charge here.

• How to Keep Network Computers Secure -- http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61534
• Apple Product Security -- http://www.info.apple.com/usen/security/index.html
• OSX Security Features Overview -- http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/security/
• Apple Security Updates -- http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798