Apple Hires Former OLPC Security Head

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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.

 

Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet

Jeff is the Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of "The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X" from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also co-hosts the We Have Communicators podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other podcasts, too. Jeff dreams in HD.

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1 Comments

Lee Dronick

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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