Keynote:

Protecting the Garden of Eden

Patrick Wardle
Chief Research Officer, Digita Security
Founder, Objective-See

From a security point of view, many see Apple’s ‘walled garden’ ecosystem as paradise on earth. And to be fair, Cupertino’s products have never suffered from a global epidemic nor are as commonly infected as their Windows counterparts. But is this security, at least on macOS, a facade? Perhaps!

In this talk, we’ll begin by discussing significant attacks against macOS and identify recent malware trends. And while the sophistication of Mac malware is not (yet) on par with those found on the Windows platform, this could easily change. To support this claim, we’ll also discuss a myriad of recent macOS security flaws that if integrated into such malicious attacks, would greatly have increased the impact and consequences.

Luckily it’s not all doom and gloom for Mac users, as Mojave promises to be the most secure version of macOS ever. After examining some of the baked-in security mechanisms of this new OS (and their shortcomings), we’ll discuss how 3rd-party security tools still play a pivotal role in ensuring that “the Garden” remains secure!
 

About Patrick

Patrick Wardle is the Chief Research Officer at Digita Security and founder of Objective-See. Having worked at NASA and the NSA, as well as presented at countless security conferences, he is intimately familiar with aliens, spies, and talking nerdy. Patrick is passionate about all things related to macOS security and thus spends his days finding Apple 0days, analyzing macOS malware and writing free open-source security tools to protect Mac users.