La empresa de administración de dispositivos empresariales Jamf ha adquirido nuevas herramientas de cmdSecurity diseñadas para ayudar a las empresas que utilizan Mac a hacer la plataforma aún más segura y proteger el cumplimiento en las industrias reguladas.
This is another clear sign of how much the state of Apple's platforms in business has changed.
Secure terminals
Jamf acquired several technical tools and resources developed by cmdSecurity, a company whose founder wrote the US government's security guidance for Mac use. The purchase includes the macOS security and compliance suite, cmdReporter, whose developers, Daniel Griggs and Eric Metzger have also joined Jamf. "We see continued demand for security and compliance within the business. This acquisition will only further strengthen Jamf's expansion of these capabilities," said Dean Hager, the company's CEO.
Life to the limit
The Security and Compliance Suite works as a security camera detector that monitors everything that works, communicates with, or authenticates on a Mac. It will collect and transmit macOS telemetry data to security log and crash event management tools (or others). It does this while maintaining compliance and checking IT security requirements. The information it collects can help monitor intrusion detection (potentially in real time) and can also be used to prevent the use of prohibited apps, stop data loss, and manage additional security features. cmdReporter supports commonly used endpoint telemetry data and automated macOS configuration audits, including CIS, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, and DISA STIG.
What's really cool is that this tool exceeds security benchmark auditing requirements, including those that were impossible to meet with native macOS. It does not use kernel extensions (kexts) to do this and was developed from the ground up to make light demands on the CPU, with a maximum CPU usage of only 8%.
Compliance at the remote enterprise
The compliance aspect is particularly valuable as Apple platforms continue to enter new corporate markets, including regulated industries. Healthcare, government, energy and education users demand Mac security solutions that can also keep systems compliant; this tool can help Jamf continue to grow its presence as Mac deployments increase in these industries. Remote working has also raised the challenges of protecting endpoint security across businesses, which certainly seems to be part of what prompted Jamf to make this acquisition. Josh Stein, Senior Director of Security Product Strategy, said: “Auditing and compliance standards are in place to ensure that a benchmark of security best practices is established to protect against the myriad of cybersecurity risks that can cause harm to reputation and financial losses. In my opinion, this makes it an essential component for the kind of smart endpoint security monitoring tools for Mac that Jamf already provides, such as Jamf Protect and Jamf Pro. The addition of the tool will extend the security provided by these solutions and it will give Macs more weight in regulated industries that would like to adopt them but need to keep up with compliance regulations.
Go bravely where there was no Mac before
The acquisition also gives Apple-in-the-Enterprise a much better opportunity to work with what looks like a collection of interesting clients. The cmdsec website states that organizations already using cmdReporter include NASA, US Patent and Trademark Office, US Department of Agriculture, JPL, NOAA, and Johns Applied Physics Laboratory Hopkins. The tool is likely to be of interest to other industries as well, including banking customers who are also migrating to Mac. More detailed information on how the Jamf acquisition can help companies meet audit and accountability requirements can be found here . Follow me on Twitter or join me in the AppleHolic's bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
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