Hello Peter, I'm a French researcher (anthropology and ethnomusicology) and I manage important collective scientific projects. So I must think in the security of our computers. We are using Macintosh computers with firewall enabled, antivirus, and MacScan, but in spite of that, we have suffered external attacks.
About Growl: The official purpose of Growl is to let "Mac OS X applications unintrusively tell when things happen. " Growl developers say that we can "control them all from one place, and know exactly how they are going to behave". The problem is that we don't know exactly what type of "things" are controlled by the software. Moreover Growl centralizes all notification preferences into its unique preference pane. Growl runs as a bridge application. Centralize informations is always dangerous. Hackers can capture in one hack a lot of informations. See for example: <http://secunia.com/advisories/product/24120/? task=statistics> If you want to use Growl, be prudent! Although GROWL includes officially security elements to safeguard your personal information, you must also take precautions to make sure no one else can access your records. 1. Keep all your passwords confidential (basic security). Protect access of your records. 2. Set the cache (data that a Web browser records on a computer's hard disk to speed its display of information) of your Web browser to zero, so your information is not retained in the computer's memory, where it could be viewed by another user. Check your browser's preferences for information on how to set the cache to zero. 3. If you did not set your cache to zero, be sure to clear (empty) the cache before you exit GROWL. Check your browser's preferences for information on how to clear the cache. 4. Never leave your computer unattended while you are logged in. Someone could access your records while you are away from the computer. 5. Remember to exit the system when you are done by clicking on "Exit." Best regards. -- Raphaël Parejo Le/el/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:18:29 -0500 Peter Lovell ([email protected]) m'a écrit / me escribió : >On Mon, Nov 16, 2009, Raphaël PAREJO <[email protected]> wrote: > >>but inform you that I don't >>use Growl for security reasons. > >Hi Raphaël, > >I don't use Growl with PowerMail either, but I wonder what your security >concerns are. > >Are you able to tell us? > >Thanks.....Peter >
