Proving that operating on encrypted drives is the only relatively safe way to compute, a hacker has broken into Macintosh’s latest operating system in less than an hour.
The security breach took place on February 22 after a Swedish devotee of the Mac set up a Mac Mini as a server and invited all takers to try to compromise the system’s security to gain root-level control. Once a hacker has gained root access to a computer system, the attacker can install applications, delete files and folders, and use the computer for any nefarious purpose.
The competition was over in a matter of hours after a hacker, who asked to be identified only as “Gwerdna,” gained access to the server in question and defaced the Web site with a message that read, “This sucks. Six hours later this poor little Mac was owned and this page got defaced.”
Real security comes from real understanding. If you don’t understand your own security needs and can’t provide your own security, then you will always have to rely on others for your security. This is fine, if you have experts available to you whom you can trust. That isn’t always possible. A primary example of this is the Transportation Security Administration.
I wouldn’t allow the TSA to touch my computer, and it makes me extremely nervous to fly federally “secured” airplanes. Ultimately, if I didn’t secure something myself, I’m not comfortable it is secure at all.
Anyhow, Mac elitists, better recheck your security and backup SOP.