"Think Different" About Compliance: Is Effective, Automated macOS Configuration Achievable with NIST's macOS Security Compliance Project?

Information security compliance within the Apple macOS ecosystem is an especially challenging problem for IT practitioners. Apple’s Mac computers continue to grow in enterprise deployment market share (Evans J., 2021). Simultaneously, compliance audit reporting and management is a growing concern for IT teams, managers, and executives as the threat of ransomware and other financially motivated attacks have become more prevalent in recent years. Compared to Windows, there remains a relative need for configuration management and compliance tools natively available for macOS. NIST recently released SP800-219, titled "Automated Secure Configuration Guidance from the macOS Security Compliance Project (mSCP).” It aims to provide 1) a new compliance/configuration solution for the macOS ecosystem and 2) an automated configuration tool built around mitigating the compliance challenges from Apple’s annual macOS release cycle.