Mountain Lion to Only Allow App Downloads From Identified Developers By Default

OS X Mountain Lion will only allow applications downloaded from the Mac App Store and identified developers by default, according to Daring Fireball and MacWorld.

The new setting is part of Gatekeeper, a feature in OS X Mountain Lion that protects you from downloading and running malicious software.


Developers can sign up for free-of-charge Apple developer IDs which they can then use to cryptographically sign their applications. If an app is found to be malware, Apple can revoke that developer's certificate, rendering the app (along with any others from the same developer) inert on any Mac where it's been installed.

Interestingly, our install of OS X Mountain Lion was set to allow applications from anywhere; however, that may be due to the fact that it was an update and not a clean install.