dmiessler.com | grep understanding - Latest Comments in Prominent Infosec Personalities That Use OS X

Re: Prominent Infosec Personalities That Use OS X

Michael S Black — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:06:13 -0000

ohh and you forgot Joe Grand aka Kingpin from L0pht

Re: Prominent Infosec Personalities That Use OS X

Michael S Black — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:40:26 -0000

It's just an observation, not a scientific sample, but i did notice a LOT more Mac's at BlackHat/Defcon this year than I have seen previously...

Re: Prominent Infosec Personalities That Use OS X

Daniel Miessler — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:09:27 -0000

This is a good idea; I'm going to compare speakers at major security conferences combined with instructors at major security training events (e.g. SANS), and then compare OS X marketshare.

Re: Prominent Infosec Personalities That Use OS X

Doc Rice — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:57:27 -0000

I can somewhat see why Joe Average IT Guy might not understand your choice in OS X, but I'm surprised you'd be questioned by infosec types. I touch OS X myself sometimes, but I'm more Windows / Linux focused for my tools given the kind of work I do. That said, I personally wouldn't hesitate to use OS X as my platform if I did mostly security work.

If you have to justify your use of a particular platform to someone, I'm not sure if merely stating that x other security pros diong the same thing is going to make a convincing statement because it's still somewhat vague. Especially for people doing security, it's probably more helpful to understand exact reasons rather than "because a bunch of other folks doing the same work likes it." I do some minor "security" work and I know I prefer specific answers rather than broad, generalized references that really don't clarify anything.

Maybe it's also because many people have the image of over-zealous Apple fanboys in their heads.

Re: Prominent Infosec Personalities That Use OS X

CarlM — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:21:50 -0000

Disclaimer: I am a long-time, very satisfied, MAC OS user.

Daniel, wouldn't this sort of argument really only have power if you could show that the percentage of Infosec types that use MAC OS is larger than the percentage of ALL computer users that use MAC OS?

The overall market share of MAC OS is apparently somewhere around 10%. If you can show that MORE than 10% of Infosec types use MAC OS, then you've got some evidence you can point to. But, as you say, any of this is just a shortcut answer and may need to be supplemented by actual reasons (which abound I'm sure).