Mac Security Is '10 Years Behind Microsoft'

wonderfield said:
There's no reason to look for them. There are currently no in-the-wild viruses for OS X, so unless you're a high-profile target for a directed attack, you're not going to be infected with a virus (and even then, you probably won't be — the hacker would ordinarily have no reason to infect the machine he's hacking with a virus.)
Click to expand...

Say that to the some 600,000 people who got infected with the flashback trojan... :rolleyes:
 
wonderfield said:
Which isn't a virus. Do you not understand what a virus is?
Click to expand...

Virus/Trojan/etc. the distinction is academic at best.

They are self replicating programs taking advantage of computers security vulnerabilities and ultimately harming the end user in one way or another by either destroying their data, setting up tracking to steal their identity, or sucking them into botnet against their wishes.

The distinction doesn't really matter. Either way, they take advantage of security holes, and do things to users computers that the users probably don't want.

IMHO, a keylogger/spying program that attempts to steal your private data is multiuple times more dangerous than any loss of data could be.

By pointing out silly differences in definitions you are just drawing away the attention from the real issue. Mac's have more security holes than any other modern operating system. Their security is based entirely on obscurity, and that obscurity house of cards is finally falling down around them.

meanwhile they keep just sticking their fingers in their ears and saying "LALALALALALA".
 
While I'm "drawing attention away from the real issue", as you put it, you're misrepresenting reality. Which is the worse offense in your opinion?
 
wonderfield said:
While I'm "drawing attention away from the real issue", as you put it, you're misrepresenting reality. Which is the worse offense in your opinion?
Click to expand...

How am I misrepresenting reality by using the word "virus" to explain the the group of viruses,trojans and malware as a whole? It's a common group term. Sortof like syaing you live in New York, when you actually live in a suburb.

It's a general term, rather than a specific one, and it isn't misrepresenting anything.

You are - however - nitpicking to draw attention away from the fact that Apple has a real problem on their hands.
 
The only reason Apple has been "secure" is because they have had an infinitesimally user-base compared to Microsoft. Once that user-base gets large enough Apple will no longer be "secure" because people will have a reason to write malicious software to attack them. Hey, it's already happening.
 
I disagree with the simple statement of "10 years behind Microsoft". I love both companies but do believe that Microsoft will maintain a larger market over Apple in both business and personal uses. With that being said hackers will continue to target the "larger crowd" over the smaller. This is why Microsoft has the majority of virus related issues to begin with. Why waste your time targeting the smaller crowd?
 
The "market share" myth was already addressed earlier in the thread.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038659033 said:
How am I misrepresenting reality by using the word "virus" to explain the the group of viruses,trojans and malware as a whole?
Click to expand...
Because it's not correct. The fundamental basis of misrepresentation is the act of portraying something as something it is not, which you did.

Zarathustra[H];1038659033 said:
You are - however - nitpicking to draw attention away from the fact that Apple has a real problem on their hands.
Click to expand...
You've neglected to realize — probably because I haven't really said much on the subject — that I don't disagree that Apple has major security issues. These issues actually affect me as a Mac user as well, or at least, to this point, at least have the potential to affect me. I have a genuine interest in what Apple does with respect to OS X security as an actual OS X user.

Given this fact, would you still assert that I'm attempting to draw attention away from the issue when I point out your errors?
 
computermod14 said:
Contributing to the fact. This is partially opinion based...
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if you read the same post as I did, but pointing out that when Apple had a smaller user base yet more malware (along with other small market share platforms riddled with malware) should be addressed rather than ignored if one wants to cling to the idea that the reason OSX doesn't have more virii than it currently does solely based on its market share.

Questioning why that claim doesn't hold true for iOS or me pointing out what I did earlier in terms of basic testable hypotheses are also all valid points raised against this belief of some that it's all (or even primarily) due to market share.


But in terms of PC users' concerns over malware I can only say that I've personally encountered a virus twice on my personal computers in my lifetime. All other times I've come across virii are people claiming they have one for unrelated computer issues.

Sluggishness, missing files, blue screens, and all sorts of random issues more related to maintenance than malware are things that people routinely attribute to a "virus." Given that I suspect a lot of people here are like me and numerous other geeks in that we more often than not get recruited as the family and friend resident tech and free support option, I can't be the only one who hears "oh I have a virus" about once a week from people that think they also need to "download office" into their "memory and stuff."

The reality, it seems, is that the malware detection companies have ignorant users coming and going over just how widespread and onerous malware is. Not saying there are no concerns, but it's simply not true that every single person will become infected as soon as they plug into a router.
 
wonderfield said:
Which isn't a virus. Do you not understand what a virus is?
Click to expand...

Flash back was altered to be a virus. Second the vast majority of people do not care about the trivial drivel about if malware is a virus or a trojan or a worm or a piece of cake. The fact is a trojan is probably far worse than a virus since that is how people bring your computer into a zombie net, and steal your data in big cases now. Second many trojans, and virii now days are neither one or the other they are both, and either could have originated from eithe catagory.

Various mac viruses are in the wild some can exploit OSX without any user interaction, there are many that require you to enter the admin password, people may think those are ridiculous but the vast vast majority of windows viruses that gave windows a bad name are the kind where you allow it to install. Most users are just that niave and do it, to think that the Mac users are more educated and will not allow this is also ridiculous. We had articles from last year there there was controversy over how Apple care was treating customers with a virus. How is that not in the wild?
 
mope54 said:
But in terms of PC users' concerns over malware I can only say that I've personally encountered a virus twice on my personal computers in my lifetime. All other times I've come across virii are people claiming they have one for unrelated computer issues.
Click to expand...

Same here. I got some virus while disk swapping on my DOS machine back in the early 90s. More recently one of my stepsons wound up with something on his laptop, which the auto sync to my storage server brought over to it as well.

Luckily, since my storage server is on Linux, it didn't propagate beyond there, but it was still a pain to clean up.

I'd wager to bet that I've worked on / repaired/ reinstalled windows/linux/whatever on more computers than 99.999% of people out there, and I can't think of more than these two occasions when I've had to deal with any Virus/trojan/malware.

Maybe I just happen to live with smarter more educated people than the average population (though judging by how they keep sticking flammable laundry in front of the oil furnace even after being told not to, I doubt this).

The reason you hear about more virus infections on PC's is twofold.

1.) There are orders of magnitude more PC's on the market than macs.

2.) Lack of obscurity has traditionally made them larger targets.

With the mac population growing, and them being so naive about malware and viruses, this is likely to change and already has a lot. If someone isn't looking for a trojan, it is much easier to put it on their machine and leave it there for a long time undetected.

In a couple of years it would be interesting to measure the difference in identity theft rate between mac users and windows users.
 
rudy said:
Flash back was altered to be a virus. Second the vast majority of people do not care about the trivial drivel about if malware is a virus or a trojan or a worm or a piece of cake. The fact is a trojan is probably far worse than a virus since that is how people bring your computer into a zombie net, and steal your data in big cases now. Second many trojans, and virii now days are neither one or the other they are both, and either could have originated from eithe catagory.

Various mac viruses are in the wild some can exploit OSX without any user interaction, there are many that require you to enter the admin password, people may think those are ridiculous but the vast vast majority of windows viruses that gave windows a bad name are the kind where you allow it to install. Most users are just that niave and do it, to think that the Mac users are more educated and will not allow this is also ridiculous. We had articles from last year there there was controversy over how Apple care was treating customers with a virus. How is that not in the wild?
Click to expand...

Thank you for making this point better than I can right now!
 
Kor said:
By 10 years behind I assume he means 'no longer in need of invasive third part AV clients made by companies like Kaspersky, instead opting to provide a free and nicely maintained security suite to it's user base'.
Click to expand...

If you think that then your Apple branded Kool-Aid has gone bad.
 
wonderfield said:
Which isn't a virus. Do you not understand what a virus is?
Click to expand...

Oooh, I know this game... it's called "Spot the Fanboi!"

What can viruses and trojans both be classified as? Malware.

Macs get Malware.

Attempting to make such a distinction just so you can say "Macs don't get viruses" is precisely why articles like this exist.
 
techrat said:
Attempting to make such a distinction just so you can say "Macs don't get viruses" is precisely why articles like this exist.
Click to expand...
Articles "like this" exist because that's how CNET makes money: by writing articles, publishing said articles and advertising on said articles.

You are correct, though. Macs do get malware. Some of them, anyway.
 
Ashbringer said:
Linux only asks you if you're about to do something that could damage the system. Like a software update, or needing root access. When Vista did this, it asks you for everything. Nearly every application will prompt you a yes and no question. Sometimes twice.

Mac and Linux both work identical in terms of giving you annoying prompts.
Click to expand...

This is also bad coding from software vendors all requiring admin access for their applications to run.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top