Apple Hires Former OLPC Security Head

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Jeff Gamet

8:03 AM, May. 14th ET, 2009

Articles by Author Jeff Gamet on Twitter Contact Author Bio

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Apple's talent harvest is still in full swing, this time with the hiring of Ivan Krstic, former director of security and architecture for the One Laptop per Child program. Mr. Krstic will use his expertise to help harden Mac OS X against potential hacker attacks, according to ZDNet.

Mr. Krstic developed the Bitfrost system for the OLPC as a way to protect against malware attacks. Bitfrost isolates each application and its data, preventing malware from stealing data or spying. According to Mr. Krstic, "This defeats the entire purpose of writing a virus."

If he designs a similar system for Mac OS X, he could potentially turn the Mac into a platform that has no need for virus protection applications. If so, Mac security application developers would likely have to revamp their utilities or simply drop their Mac products and focus instead on the strong third-party security market for Windows.

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1 Observer Comment

Lee Dronick

said on May 14th, 2009 at 10:10 AM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

If so, Mac security application developers would likely have to revamp their utilities or simply drop their Mac products and focus instead on the strong third-party security market for Windows.

This is a serious question; Currently how many OSX security programs are out there? I have heard of the Intego, ClamX, and a few others, but it doesn’t seem to be a big part list. Am I correct about that?

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