Re: need "host-based" firewall

Hi Stephanie,

At 13:17 -0700 2004-06-09, Stephanie J. Tibbetts wrote:
>We in the Haas School have been advised that our computer center has
>established their standard for the new requirement for a host-based
>firewall per the Minimum Security Standards. However, I have been told
>they are not going to support Macs, either personal for home hook-up to
>the university or in our office.
>
>I have a G3 Mac in my office and a G4 at home. Both are running OS 9.x.
>What are Mac-friendly offices using to meet this standard? Is there a
>university license that I can sign onto? If not, how does this august
>group suggest I proceed? (Local advice is "buy a Dell.")

   I can understand the desire to have you use a locally-supported
platform, but the concept of meeting campus minimum security
standards by migrating to a PC running Windows XP from a Macintosh
running Mac OS 9 - one of the most secure platforms on the Internet -
is not evidence of cogent thought.

   The campus has a license for host-based firewall software for both
Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, and the product should be available for
downloading within a matter of weeks. As mentioned in the Berkeley
Computing and Communications article, "Free protection from Internet
threats: the C@B Secure CD",
<http://istpub.berkeley.edu:4201/bcc/Spring2004/cabsecure.html>:

>... to help your computer meet some of the key requirements of these
>campus [minimum] security standards ... campus users can obtain
>Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh, the campus's licensed antivirus
>software for the Mac OS, from the Connecting@Berkeley 2004 CD
>(http://cab.berkeley.edu/) or by downloading it from the WSSG
>Software website (http://software.berkeley.edu/). Norton Personal
>Firewall for Macintosh, recently licensed by the campus, is expected
>to be available for downloading from that website later in the
>spring 2004 semester.

   Norton Personal Firewall will be available on the
Connecting@Berkeley 2005 CD, which we're preparing for manufacturing
this month. It should be available for downloading from the WSS
Software site <http://software.berkeley.edu> by early July 2004.
This is a bit later than stated above, but nonetheless at least nine
months before the implementation deadline for the campus minimum
security standards.

Aron Roberts
Workstation Software Support Group

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Received on Wed Jun 9 13:57:14 2004