Parallels desktop security

mobjerkn wrote:

Russa wrote:

The short answer to your question is.. no, the VM does not offer protection to your company, and, yes, it can infect your Windows environment!

You'll probably need to install some sort of VIrus/network protection software if you intend to use a VM for work.. both on MacOS and on your Windows VM. Viruses/Malware can easily infect, not transfered from, MacOS to Windows through the Parallels interface since Parallels let's you access/use MacOS files directly from your Windows VM.. especially M/S Office files. Parallels/Windows VM is not necessarily a Boot Camp implementation with separate partitions. This is a Parallels "benefit"!

(If you ran the recent Adobe Flash deinstaller from Apple then maybe that vulnerability is OBE.)

Please post if you're allowed to install your VPN client on the Parallels/Windows VM.. I'd like to do it too but havent tried it.

Thanks for your answer.

I'll update this post when I've tried to install VPN on Parallels/Windows VM. Would Oracle Virtualbox be a better choice in regards to security? I seems to me that it's more isolated then Parallels.

Virtual machines do not provide any security. They provide a virtual hardware environment in which to run operating systems. Security is achieved when you run firewalls, VPN's and other security programs. So regardless which VM you install, security will not be changed.

"Would Oracle Virtualbox be a better choice in regards to security? I seems to me that it's more isolated then Parallels."What does this mean?

A virtual machine program will not infect or make your computer less secure. The operating system you run in the virtual machine will impact security. So if running Windows make sure you are running an anti virus program.

The short answer to your question is.. no, the VM does not offer protection to your company, and, yes, it can infect your Windows environment!

You'll probably need to install some sort of VIrus/network protection software if you intend to use a VM for work.. both on MacOS and on your Windows VM. Viruses/Malware can easily infect, not transfered from, MacOS to Windows through the Parallels interface since Parallels let's you access/use MacOS files directly from your Windows VM.. especially M/S Office files. Parallels/Windows VM is not necessarily a Boot Camp implementation with separate partitions. This is a Parallels "benefit"!

(If you ran the recent Adobe Flash deinstaller from Apple then maybe that vulnerability is OBE.)

Please post if you're allowed to install your VPN client on the Parallels/Windows VM.. I'd like to do it too but havent tried it.

What you describe doesn't really say anything whatsoever about security. It does mean that Mac OS X and Windows will be pretty isolated from each other, though, which means that you don't have to worry about transferring malware between systems, unless you do somehow move files from one system to the other. Regardless, you will need to run anti-virus software on the Windows system.

The thing is that my company doesn't allow us to connect to company network with Mac's.

That's just plain dumb. There's no security aspect to that prohibition, just ignorance. But that's not your fault, of course.

Connecting via Windows in a virtual machine on a Mac should be just as good, and they'll never know you're using Mac hardware instead of PC hardware. (That wouldn't be relevant anyway.) You don't need to worry about transferring stuff from your Mac to your Windows system if you're not transferring files between the two systems.