Re: spyware on macs ?
- From: Oxford <csma@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:48:14 -0600
TheLetterK <theletterk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > marketshare has very little to do with it,
> Your right, marketshare is irrelivent. Share of the installed userbase,
> however, is everything.
>
> Let's take a sample, shall we?
>
> 10000000000000010000
>
> The zeros are Windows boxes, the ones are Macs. Now, which platform do
> you think is easier to target? Each victim you get will act as another
> carrier of the virus. Now, the Macs will have to connect with other Macs
> (a relatively rare event) to spread the virus--the Windows boxes, on the
> other hand, can pretty much just pick an active address at random and
> get a viable target.
but we aren't talking about "ease of target" we are talking about "ease
to infect", if this so called "userbase" percentage was flipped, and MS
had 4% and Apple 92%... 100% of the Viruses will still only be on
Windows. It's a technical reason OSX doesn't get viruses, not a "target"
based one. A virus writer would get far more notoriety by infecting OSX
with it's "1st" virus, than he would by doing the "64,001st" Windows
virus. Why hasn't anyone stepped forward? Reason? They can't.
> > the reason is far more
> > technical in nature,
> Well, if you consider statistics to be 'technical'.
Stats have very little to do with it, if 100% of the macs were not on
the net, then you might have a point, but a good 80% are on the net, and
ZERO have been infected over 4.5 years of use.
> > the fact is a good 15 million osx macs are
> > connected to the net 24/7/365, so don't you think "one measly virus"
> > would of infected the population by now?
> One did. The fake word installer virus.
post a reference, bet you can't
> > OSX is designed differently
> > than Windows of any version,
> Which does not imbue some magical immunity to viruses.
no, but there are some serious security mistakes in windows. in OSX, not
so much.
> > so it's basically impossible to remotely
> > enter a mac,
> Well, if you feel so secure, leave your Mac outside your firewall and
> post your IP addy for the world to see.
firewalls are for wimps, they are basically unneeded on OSX. my systems
are always on, no passwords, sharing is on, come get me or any mac user
for that matter.
> >>>If a serious piece of spyware or "virus" was ever to infect a Mac it
> >>>could only live 7 days, the default "update option on macs" there is
> >>>some hints that Apple could even invoke a fix immediately if needed.
> >>
> >>Unless the virus carried a serious payload.
> >
> > That's a pretty big if...
> Not really.
then why hasn't it happened with OSX being so prominent on the net?
> > nah, microsoft is design by committee, they don't have the time to
> > manage linux machines
> Nonsense, they run a Linux lab. It's a well known fact. Scouting out
> their opposition, and all.
and they had an apple // lab, LISA lab, Mac Lab, NeXT lab, nothing new
there.
the real reason(s) OSX is so secure...
1) 30+ years of unix, Live 24/7 network development. No other consumer
OS is this battle tested on the Internet.
2) Known insecure networking ports are turned off by default.
3) Automatic Software Update is turned on by default.
4) All administrative actions require a password. In other words, for
Virus to move from machine to machine, a Virus writer must go into every
house/office then figure out the user's password, then hit return. (now
you know why there are Zero viruses on Macs)
5) Root administrator account is turned off by default.
6) Apple's quick response with security patches.
7) The open source nature of the operating system allows flexibility. If
Apple doesn't provide the patch quickly enough I can download the source
code and install it myself.
8) Like Windows, Mac OS X provides an easy to use user interface which
exposes many of its unix underpinnings making it easier to administrate
for beginners.
9) Mac OS X by default supports secure encryption and communication
protocols for authentication: Kerberos, SSH, VPN, MS-CHAP2, DIGEST-MD5,
CRAM-MD5, DHX, OTP, SMB-NT, APOP.
Many of these features are cited by the National Security Agency as
pluses in favor of Mac OS X. You can read it about in their publication:
http://www.nsa.gov/snac/os/applemac/osx_client_final_v.1.pdf
Finally, many of Mac OS X's security problems are only theoretical and
can never materialize, nor propagate in the wild. Apple contracts
agencies to find security holes in its operating system before the
hackers do. They work with the CERT (http://www.cert.org/) and the
FreeBSD community (http://www.freebsd.org/security/) to address security
issues. They also belong to FIRST (http://www.first.org/). In short
Apple takes security seriously and if you work with Macs as I do you'd
know it too.
.
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