TNT brings identity management to Apple Macs

The typical corporate network is made up of servers (Windows, maybe NetWare), hosts (Linux, Unix and the like) and desktops/clients (mostly Windows, some Linux). But lurking out there, somewhere on many of your networks, is something that can bring your well-designed identity management strategy to a grinding halt. Or, more likely, cause you to detour around what you may feel is a pothole on the information superhighway that is your network. I refer, of course, to Apple’s Macintosh computer. That’s right. In addition to wonderful entertainment devices such as the iPod, Apple also makes desktop and laptop general-purpose computers.

If you’ve detoured around the Mac, or Macs, on your network or simply ignored them as you attempted to implement a full-blown identity management project, you could be in for some major problems. While it’s true that security may not be a major factor with the Macs you have, regulatory compliance doesn’t restrict itself to Windows or Linux platforms – all electronic data, all access is covered and you ignore it at your peril. But what can you do?

My good friends at TNT, Trusted Network Technologies, want to help. Well, mostly they want to sell you a product, but – if you have Macs – they want to help. What TNT has done is to release Identity Driver for Mac OS X Version 10.4 (a.k.a. “Tiger”) users. It’s a new component of TNT’s Identity product (i.e., the product’s name is “Identity”) which it claims extends enterprise-class identity management and audit to the Mac community for the first time. The Identity product allows organizations to see, control and prove who’s interacting with any server or application, from what computer, and when, an essential service for companies striving to comply with governmental regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, Graham-Leach- Bliley, and others.

The bottom line is that there’s no longer a need to throw a shroud over any Macs you might have whenever the auditors are making their rounds. You’ll also sleep better knowing that you’ve improved the security and auditability of your Macintosh platforms. Reasons enough, I think, to investigate TNT’s Identity.