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Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Limetless on May 10, 2012, 04:44 am

Title: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Limetless on May 10, 2012, 04:44 am
Ok so I this is pretty self explanatory. Currently I have a Vaio but I fancy going balls in and treating myself to a Macbook Pro. Are they good security-wise? Are they more/less secure than Windows-based laptops? What do people recommend?

Cheers GANGSTAS!

Lim
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Xis on May 10, 2012, 04:46 am
I love my macbook pro. I bought a 15 inch late 2011 model, I put 16gb ram, a 750gb hd/ssd hybrid and a 256gb ssd in the optical drive, id say its just as safe as anything else.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Limetless on May 10, 2012, 04:52 am
I love my macbook pro. I bought a 15 inch late 2011 model, I put 16gb ram, a 750gb hd/ssd hybrid and a 256gb ssd in the optical drive, id say its just as safe as anything else.

See with mine I'm jacking up the ram to 8GB, OS X Lion and other stuff to make it faster. Programs I am going to put on it are Truecrypt hidden system/hidden container, KasperSky Pure and everything else. I also had my SR bird SickGirl give me the 411 about how to suit up a system in terms of security so I reckon it's the way forward. Also is it true that Macs are harder to hack because most viruses/trojans/keyloggers etc are written for Windows OS?
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: anonsora on May 10, 2012, 05:11 am
Yeah macs are harder for virus and malware creators, but there have been some recently that are still able to get on your Mac, I suspect that in the coming of years hackers well develop more for Macs. Also, I'm on a mac, but sometimes it's a bitch to find some software for these things.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Limetless on May 10, 2012, 05:13 am
Yeah macs are harder for virus and malware creators, but there have been some recently that are still able to get on your Mac, I suspect that in the coming of years hackers well develop more for Macs. Also, I'm on a mac, but sometimes it's a bitch to find some software for these things.

In what sense is it hard?
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: anonsora on May 10, 2012, 05:42 am
Yeah macs are harder for virus and malware creators, but there have been some recently that are still able to get on your Mac, I suspect that in the coming of years hackers well develop more for Macs. Also, I'm on a mac, but sometimes it's a bitch to find some software for these things.
In what sense is it hard?
I don't really know to be honest, not a big Mac fan to learn much about the system, more of a PC person, I just got this Mac as a gift and didn't want to complain about it out of respect and accepted it. But pipedreamz has the right idea haha.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Limetless on May 10, 2012, 05:45 am
Hmm you see I'm not tech savvy enough to learn Linux etc and I do love how Macs work so I think I'm going to go for it and keep the Mac OS. Really I just want to know if the security can be beefed up to the same level as I have at the moment. Never tinkered with a Mac in that sense before.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Xis on May 10, 2012, 05:56 am
I love my macbook pro. I bought a 15 inch late 2011 model, I put 16gb ram, a 750gb hd/ssd hybrid and a 256gb ssd in the optical drive, id say its just as safe as anything else.

See with mine I'm jacking up the ram to 8GB, OS X Lion and other stuff to make it faster. Programs I am going to put on it are Truecrypt hidden system/hidden container, KasperSky Pure and everything else. I also had my SR bird SickGirl give me the 411 about how to suit up a system in terms of security so I reckon it's the way forward. Also is it true that Macs are harder to hack because most viruses/trojans/keyloggers etc are written for Windows OS?
Ehh, the only reason thats true is because there are more window OS users than there are macs, there are still viruses for macs, and they arent much if at all harder to infect than windows machines are. But since macs can not run .exes (where a lot of viruses are) they do not have as much risk.

Also, to the guy that said you cant find programs there are multiple ways around this. First off, most popular programs have mac versions available, if there are some programs that happen to be window only (Games as well) you have a couple options, you could dual boot windows on your mac, OR the easier way that I use, you can use a virtual machine program. You have a few choices,  popular programs are parallels and virtualbox. I personally use and like virtualbox more, but they both work and you can pirate both of them on pirate bay, this lets you install an os and section off a small part of the hd for that, and run it in a window so you can open any games or programs on that and use them.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Limetless on May 10, 2012, 05:56 am
Short answer. Yes.

In fact, limet-man, if u opt for mac or ubuntu (and I'm telling you ubuntu is damn near ready for the masses, you seem like a smart enough guy, I don't think it'll be a problem for you if u chose that route) then you can skip kaspersky alltogether, unless you want it to scan things that you're sending to people with more susceptible computers.

Great stuff. :)

Yeah I scan everything I receive just because I am a paranoid fuck. :P + I have paid for the license now so I may as well put it on the new system as well. If that's the case what I might do is get the Mac and wipe my old Vaio and then put Ubuntu on that so I can have a practice on it. I need to wipe the old girl anyway because obviously...yeah...lol....so I can just get that done and have a play around and see how it goes.

Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: vlad1m1r on May 10, 2012, 06:01 am
Short answer. Yes.

In fact, limet-man, if u opt for mac or ubuntu (and I'm telling you ubuntu is damn near ready for the masses, you seem like a smart enough guy, I don't think it'll be a problem for you if u chose that route) then you can skip kaspersky alltogether, unless you want it to scan things that you're sending to people with more susceptible computers.

Second to what Pipedreamz has said I think you'll find Ubuntu very easy to use and set up. It's certainly as easy to install as windows and now thanks to the software centre, any time you need a new program you can just add it from there 99% of the time.

Even when you have to get down and dirty with the command line there is always a website which will tell you exactly what to type so you can just copy and paste.

I would say Linux has a slight security advantage over a Mac in that a password is required each time you want to make a significant change but a Mac can be modified to have this feature too (apparently!) and I did initially use a Macbook to access SR back in the day.

Ultimately when it comes to Security it's a question of adapting your own habits to make sure you're using your computer in a safe way. This involves using full disk encryption for instance, creating Bitcoin wallets using Live CD's (very easy if you haven't done this before - please ask) and making sure you keep your browser for SR and PGP/GPG software apart from the main Operating System.

My advice to you for what it's worth is by all means get your Mac if you can afford it! But have a virtual machine installed on it running a Linux Operating System for all your more sordid activities. Once again this is very easy to set up, by all means ask if you need any help.

V.



Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: kmfkewm on May 10, 2012, 06:03 am
Go with Mint it is like Ubuntu but even easier. If Ubuntu is almost ready for the masses, Mint is.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Limetless on May 10, 2012, 06:11 am
Furthermore ubuntu is back by the most helpful forum community in the history of the internet. Any problems you have, just post and some resident genius is there right away to help.

Based on what you've said, I suggest you do this:

Get your mac, have fun, use that as your regular computer. DBAN your old computer, put ubuntu on it, and use that for everything SR/ML/striping related.

Sounds like a plan to me. CHEERS GANGSTERS! :)

On another note....has anyone noticed that weird thread with someone called Bosshogg11 shouting claiming he supplies wholesale drugs to celebrities? Funny shit.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Xis on May 10, 2012, 07:37 am
ooh grats on mod
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Limetless on May 10, 2012, 08:52 am
Thanks very much. :)
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: TreyWingo104 on May 10, 2012, 09:00 am
Hmm you see I'm not tech savvy enough to learn Linux etc and I do love how Macs work so I think I'm going to go for it and keep the Mac OS. Really I just want to know if the security can be beefed up to the same level as I have at the moment. Never tinkered with a Mac in that sense before.


trust, you dont have to "learn" linux to use :)   
Its like the difference between being a lejit hacker and a script kiddy.  Plenty of linux distros out there for all your IRL security needs.  Nothing beats having a little stick that keeps everything off of your actual computer IMO, at least in theory. 

On whether or not switch to the Mac platform....Definitely dude.  You can get paralells and still have Windows, its the best of both worlds without R kelly and the ten year old girl :)
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Leroy the bad boy on May 12, 2012, 02:47 am
I was pretty clueless when it came to my Mac, really, it's pretty simple. It's a few different keys and commands but all in all, Macs are great. Once you switch to the Mac OSX there  is an adjustment period, just stick with it, it's worth it. I was skeptical, now....total fan.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: flicky42 on May 12, 2012, 03:52 am
The only problem I'm running into with mac is encrypting my hard drive. I don't know how to do it and Truecrypt only encrypts harddrives for windows. If any of you know how please relay some info
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Limetless on May 12, 2012, 03:58 am
The only problem I'm running into with mac is encrypting my hard drive. I don't know how to do it and Truecrypt only encrypts harddrives for windows. If any of you know how please relay some info

Go to the trucrypt website and you can get the software for it there.
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Xis on May 12, 2012, 05:34 am
The only problem I'm running into with mac is encrypting my hard drive. I don't know how to do it and Truecrypt only encrypts harddrives for windows. If any of you know how please relay some info
Carbon Copy Cloner let's you do this.
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
Title: Re: Treating myself to a new laptop. Want to get a Mac but are they secureable?
Post by: Trippyskies on May 12, 2012, 09:33 am
macs are just PC's with a different OS.   Secure them the same way, download liberte or tails and write it to a flash drive.   Bam, secure.

If I had the money, I flash it to a self encrypting SSD (these are bad ass, no performance hit for encryption, but are there back doors?) and run a Tails install with an additional encrypted partition.  Or, even if not running tails linux, I'd install my OS there, keep all my games (which I don't play) and movies and music on a encrypted HDD.  No need to access that shit fast, so no performance hit.  Maybe keep my special filess, like passwords, etc in a tripple encrypted Micro SD card.

but, Tails, linux, it's like ten minutes to install and boot.  there is nothing to set up, no configuration to do, it just works.  and it's fast.  Tails running on a class, 2, I think, SD card is faster than windows running on a unencrypted HDD.    I don't even use my hard drive, which is now totally encrypted, btw, I should unplug it, maybe sell it, I don't need it, and it would save power/battery life. buy drugs instead.  yeah, I should do that. 

My hidden Os can be popped out of my comuter and bitten and swallowed in like, 1 second?  maybe less? it is in a micro sd -> usb adapter.  Micro SD cards, i'm sure, taste like candy.  Doesn't matter anyways, it's tails, which means it saves no trace except in the encrypted file.


I imagine that the OS would run faster off of a class six card which has a higher read/write rate.  Mine is 2gb and shitty.  fast enough for me though, I just read about drugs,

ugh.  I'm depressed.