Apple @ Work is an exclusive offering from Mosyle, Apple’s only unified platform. Mosyle is the only solution that brings together in one professional-grade platform all the solutions you need to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage and protect Apple devices at work. More than 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices ready to use effortlessly and affordably. Request an ADVANCED TEST today and find out why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
When you used enterprise Macs fifteen years ago, you weren’t just an Apple-loving IT administrator, you were a survivor. In those days, Apple was often an afterthought in the business world, seen as an inconvenience by many IT leaders who preferred Windows and PC deployments. Because we didn’t have widespread vendor support or enterprise-grade tools, the Mac admin community had to build them themselves. The community writes scripts, shares knowledge, and builds applications. Obviously, things are different today. Apple is quickly becoming the default endpoint for businesses. However, the society’s efforts do not stop. Another app recently popped up on my radar, and it’s a great example of the Mac admin community at work. Let’s look at MACE
About Apple@Work: Bradley Chambers managed the corporate IT network from 2009 to 2021. With his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, mobile device management systems, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, 1,000 Macs, and 1,000 iPads, Bradley will share how Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, talk about deep IT management, and ways Apple can improve its products for IT departments.
As security requirements increase in this era of computing, implementing compliance metrics such as CIS or NIST has become a top priority for IT administrators. MACE simplifies the complexity of these government standards by packaging them into a usable open source tool that any IT team can deploy.
What is the macOS Security Compliance Project?
The macOS Security Compliance Project is an open source initiative that offers a programmatic approach to creating security guidelines. It doesn’t just give you a PDF to read. Creates custom documentation, remediation scripts, configuration profiles, and audit checklists tailored to your specific core requirements. It is authoritative because it is recommended by NIST Special Publication 800-219.
This project is a collaborative effort of federal IT security staff and volunteers from organizations such as NIST, NASA, the US Navy, and the Center for Internet Security. Apple even covers this on their Apple Support site. The project uses a set of proven controls for macOS and maps them to compatible security guides. Your team can use it as a resource to easily create their own security baselines using a library of proven configuration settings. These baselines create the actual content you need to load into your management tools to achieve compliance.
How MACE works
The macOS Security Project relies heavily on editing complex YAML files, understanding scripts, and navigating the folder structure, which feels more like a developer’s playground than something IT engineers might use every day.
MACE solves this by acting as a graphical user interface for mSCP. Instead of searching through lines of code to find a rule that disables the macOS camera or enforces a screen lock password, MACE displays these controls on the dashboard. You can download a standard baseline, such as NIST 800-171 or CIS Benchmark, and then enable or disable specific rules based on your organization’s requirements.
After setting up the base level, the program creates the necessary output files. This includes configuration profiles and scripts that you can upload directly to the device management service. This means that even the smallest IT teams can implement strict security standards without the need to bring in a dedicated security engineer or third-party vendor.
Wrap it up
One of the risks of using free, open source community tools is that they can sometimes be abandoned. However, it appears that MACE has an active roadmap to address some of the biggest challenges facing IT teams. The developer is working on tools that will allow you to import existing mSCP 1.0 and 2.0 baselines. The roadmap also includes the ability to formally audit the mSCP and, more importantly, apply fixes directly from the results. When implemented well, this will close the loop between the detection of a compliance error and its correction. When you combine this with automatic policy updates from the mSCP repository, MACE can be a set-it-and-forget-it utility for compliance management.
Perhaps the best thing about MACE is that it comes with a free price tag. Since this is an open source project from the Ma admin community, your procurement team is not charged for the subscription or purchasing process. You can download the latest version directly from GitHub. Of course, if you find it useful for your business, you can buy a developer coffee (or 50).
Apple @ Work is an exclusive offering from Mosyle, Apple’s only unified platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates into a professional-grade platform all the solutions you need to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage and protect Apple devices at work. More than 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to prepare millions of Apple devices for use without labor and at an affordable price. Request an ADVANCED TEST today and find out why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
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