[AGL] Safari dont work, Internet Explorer does

J. David Moriaty moriaty at sbcglobal.net
Wed Nov 15 09:32:39 EST 2006


Thanks to those of you who have voiced your mistaken faith in my Mac
expertise. Actually, it is been over a year since I last taught (I'm
retired, dudes) and that means any expertizee is dead meat.

There aren't any anti-virus programs for Mac OS X because it doesn't
need any, so far.

What many PC people don't understand is Mac system X doesn't have any
spyware, virus, or keylogging problems (unless you are using a work
computer where keylogging has been installed with the company's
permission) because of the clever Mac keychain.

This security feature requires your consent for any execution programs
that get installed, then assigns them an encrypted code. It changes
this randomly, and every time you turn on your computer it compares the
keychain's list with any programs that try to boot. Even if the code is
hacked, the program lists won't match.

Here's how it works:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/security/

If the keychain catches something that doesn't match, or a duplicate
program, it shuts it down. If you get a couple of unexplained shutdowns
in a row (very rare, once a year or less) you go to utilities and run a
disk check that fixes the keychain, printing a blow-by-blow description
of what it's doing while it's doing it. Foreign programs like
RealPlayer seem to feature prominently in these fixes.

Apple automatically updates its security features via internet. I
haven't a clue as to how they keep these updates secure.

j.dave



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