Book Image

The macOS User Administration Guide

By : Herta Nava
Book Image

The macOS User Administration Guide

By: Herta Nava

Overview of this book

Apple is pushing the capabilities of its technologies to help users achieve high performance, including improvements in its OS running across all Mac systems, macOS, and new technologies such as M1 Silicon chips. This book walks you through macOS from a system administration and support point of view, exploring its latest features. The book starts by explaining macOS architecture, installation, and startup processes to enable you to get started with the OS. You'll learn how to manage users and discover techniques for user security and privacy. Moving on, you'll get to grips with the macOS file system and learn to manage disks, volumes, and partitions for effective file management. Most of the examples covered in this book are from an administrator's perspective; however, when relevant, a standard user's perspective is also presented. You'll find illustrations for Mac systems running macOS 11 (Big Sur), and when necessary, for macOS 10.15 (macOS Catalina). Finally, you'll explore advanced topics such as networking and using command-line tools for administration tasks. By the end of this macOS book, you'll be well-versed with macOS features, administration tasks, and best practices. You'll also be able to apply the concepts to increase your chances of success in obtaining Apple certifications such as Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP).
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
18
About Packt

Understanding System Security

When we talk about system security, we mean the tools and features aimed at maximizing the operating system's security. This includes security during the Mac machine's boot-up process, operation, and access to key files and folders. macOS system security can be approached through the currently available features, as well as the application of specific measures and tools. By the end of this section, you will be aware of what you have at your disposal to protect macOS. This is what we will examine in this section:

  • macOS security features
  • Recommended security measures
  • Bonjour/zero-configuration and mDNS security concerns
  • What is System Integrity Protection (SIP)?

Let's review these features and measures and how they can help you.

macOS security features

macOS offers several features that are designed to improve security and privacy. Concerning this, the following are the latest features implemented.

Features implemented in macOS Big Sur:

  • Signed...