Securing the Mac OS: Full Disk Encryption using Sophos SafeGuard®

As Enterprise businesses increasingly adopt the Mac OS platform, security and regulatory compliance are becoming important focuses for IT Administrators. Customers across the Commercial, Education and Government sectors are experiencing increased pressure to demonstrate compliance with an array of regulations which may include the U.S. Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).

Mac OS X is known for being extremely secure, a factor that is increasingly cited as one of the driving factors behind widespread adoption of the platform. At JAMF Software, we have concentrated our efforts on combining technologies that are native to the platform (Mac OS X) with a management framework (the Casper Suite) that automates many of the processes necessary for management of these machines.

To complement the native security of the OS, there are many techniques to increase the security of native technologies and further protect your enterprise using third-party software. Using the Casper Suite, it is possible to automate deployment of the Sophos SafeGuard full disk encryption product, report on the status of disk encryption and alert in the case of failure.

Sophos SafeGuard

SafeGuard encrypts Macs to protect against data breaches, even if the computer is lost or stolen. Whether for a single MacBook or for a mix of tens of thousands of Apple and Windows PCs and laptops, the SafeGuard product family allows easy implementation and enforcement of data protection.

Benefits to using Sophos SafeGuard

• Data security with proven encryption algorithms to protect lost or stolen Macs
• Encryption of operating system including page files for complete security
• Very fast user-transparent background encryption for high productivity
• Comprehensive logging for compliance reporting
• Easy administration and deployment with both UI and scripting options

Supported Disk Encryption Products

The Casper Suite integrates with and extends the functionality of numerous disk encryption products from a variety of developers. With each product, we have identified the ability of the Casper Suite to integrate and extend the baseline product offering with four additional capabilities: deploy, update, activate and report.