Buckle Up Mac's

[kevhead20]

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/140226....

 

so much for the assumption of perfect code development, with the Mac's gaining popularity I'm afraid this might just be the beginning

[tekheavy]

[Boss Doctor]

I saw a report about Botnet the other day, and I notice Jeff isn't sounding off about it. Humm?

 

Jeff: I thought you said Apples were safe?

[08SGT1977]

I saw a report about Botnet the other day, and I notice Jeff isn't sounding off about it. Humm?

 

Jeff: I thought you said Apples were safe?

 

 

I have been running Mac's for years. Security by obscurity. Since it is a smaller, (yet growing) market, hackers tend to focus on the Windows OS where they get more effect. Threats are still there and increasing in number but far less than the Windows environment. PS. I am an IT professional with a Masters Degree in Infrastructure Assurance and a CISSP. Not trying to start a Windows vs Mac war. I support Windows in the enterprise at work but run macs exclusively at home and in my personal life.

[Boss Doctor]

I have been running Mac's for years. Security by obscurity. Since it is a smaller, (yet growing) market, hackers tend to focus on the Windows OS where they get more effect. Threats are still there and increasing in number but far less than the Windows environment. PS. I am an IT professional with a Masters Degree in Infrastructure Assurance and a CISSP. Not trying to start a Windows vs Mac war. I support Windows in the enterprise at work but run macs exclusively at home and in my personal life.

 

I work for Dell, and Jeff works for MAC. The "war" started way before now, so no worries there. I agree with you that malicious code wasn't written because of usage numbers, but Jeff claimed that it was because their OS was written so well.

[ingram4868]

I use the MAC iAntiVirus program mentioned in the article (after 2 years of not using anything) and with its first scan it tagged 3 minor viruses. Haven't seen anything sense (4 months). With the PC I'd pick up spyware trackers and malware all the time. About every 3 months I'd have the PC hang and would have to reload back to the OEM setup and then reload all the backup data to get it current.

[David Hawkins]

I work for Dell, and Jeff works for MAC. The "war" started way before now, so no worries there. I agree with you that malicious code wasn't written because of usage numbers, but Jeff claimed that it was because their OS was written so well.

 

 

Either way........If the Company is going to BRAG about how safe it is, SOMEONE is going to do something to proove you wrong just for spite. I read an article comparing PC's and Mac's and Apple stated that there Computers don't get the Hackers and Viruses because it is to hard to break the Codes and someone else stated that it was because MORE People use PC's. Maybe if Apple would not have said what they did then they would have stayed in the shawdows and been left alone. To boil it down...... If you don't want to be messed with, don't Brag on your self.

Oops, to late.

[Boss Doctor]

Either way........If the Company is going to BRAG about how safe it is, SOMEONE is going to do something to proove you wrong just for spite. I read an article comparing PC's and Mac's and Apple stated that there Computers don't get the Hackers and Viruses because it is to hard to break the Codes and someone else stated that it was because MORE People use PC's. Maybe if Apple would not have said what they did then they would have stayed in the shawdows and been left alone. To boil it down...... If you don't want to be messed with, don't Brag on your self.

Oops, to late.

Agreed, which is why I'm bust'n Jeff's chops.

[David Hawkins]

I work for Dell, and Jeff works for MAC. The "war" started way before now, so no worries there. I agree with you that malicious code wasn't written because of usage numbers, but Jeff claimed that it was because their OS was written so well.

 

 

I have two Dells at Home and one at Work..............

[Boss Doctor]

I have two Dells at Home and one at Work..............

 

Obviously, I use one at work, but I also have an XPS One at home, and I love that thing. If you aren't familiar with it, the whole unit is contained in the 20" widescreen monitor, so I have no box on the floor on which to bang my foot/shin upon. XPS support is always American based too! :happy feet:

[KingCobra666]

In the switch to intel processors and on newer versions of OSX there is a higher likelyhood of infection. The way the OSX firewall operates now is different than it once was. Its become, unfortunately, more PC like. It parses IP data differently and IMHO not as safely. Why they made the switch I'm not sure.

 

You can bet as the user base grows virus and trojans problems will become more prevelant particularly with the lack of people running any anti virus on Macs. They are frequently wide open. PC's are usually locked down tighter than a crabs ass.

 

Back in the day Mac trojans and virus were fairly common. OS 6 7 8 and 9.

 

KC666

[glroy]

I have been running Mac's for years. Security by obscurity. Since it is a smaller, (yet growing) market, hackers tend to focus on the Windows OS where they get more effect. Threats are still there and increasing in number but far less than the Windows environment. PS. I am an IT professional with a Masters Degree in Infrastructure Assurance and a CISSP. Not trying to start a Windows vs Mac war. I support Windows in the enterprise at work but run macs exclusively at home and in my personal life.

 

+1

but it is not windows vs mac. It's dos vs UNIX ( mac is just sitting on to of this robust kernel)

all good hackers know both in fact the best hackers cut their teeth on UNIX

want to be real safe run windows 3.1; stable dos platform with apps that don't mess up the OS when they run. pretty hard to inject new DLLs when the OS dose not know what a DLL is.

[ilmor]

We have two PC laptops and one MacBook at home. None of us likes the Mac and when it goes back comes PC. Having said that, however, I do love my iPhone and will be getting my wife one soon for her birthday.

[08SGT1977]

+1

but it is not windows vs mac. It's dos vs UNIX ( mac is just sitting on to of this robust kernel)

all good hackers know both in fact the best hackers cut their teeth on UNIX

want to be real safe run windows 3.1; stable dos platform with apps that don't mess up the OS when they run. pretty hard to inject new DLLs when the OS dose not know what a DLL is.

 

too funny and yes, you are absolutely correct about the hacker/cracker community being strong in UNIX and macos (Darwin) is based on the freebsd flavor of unix

 

At work the windows clients quickly become vulnerable if the terrible tuesday updates are not successfully pushed to the clients or they were off the LAN for more than a few days.

[blkGT500nCA]

Interesting read from kenrockwell.com

 

Likewise, all Mac users know never to enter their password into a box unless they are installing software they intend to install.

 

One of the many ways Macs are impervious to viruses is that nothing can install itself on your Mac unless you enter your password to give it permission. No password, no virus.

 

Windows computers die fast because viruses infect them just like they infect people: they install themselves without asking permission. Windows computers have so many holes that viruses install themselves without having to ask. That's among the reasons why windows computers are always dying.

 

Just like the weak attempt at a Mac attack last year that arrived as emails that claimed to be JPGs of Anna Kournikova naked, no one caught that virus because 1.) Macs just show JPGs in the email (no one has to click anything), which raised our eyebrows when we didn't just see naked pictures in the email automatically, and 2.) the rogue virus software that was actually an install package that had a title of ".JPG" still required users to enter their password for the virus to install. Even the most desperate Mac users know never to enter passwords to install software that they don't intend to install.

 

Today the media is trying to scare us, since as usual there are always stupid people. If you use bootleg software, possession of which is a crime in most places, duh, some bootleg ripoffs of some Apple software have some garbage in them.

 

Duh! Why do you think people write and distribute bootleg software? To take over your machine, bucko.

 

Thankfully very few Apple users have been stupid enough to use bootleg software, so the iBotnet Trojan horse (named after the USC teams) hasn't gotten anywhere.

 

Media is trying to scare people by calling it a virus, but its not. You can't catch it unless you install it. All the iBotnet Trojan horse is is crappy software designed to screw your machine if you're dumb enough to install it; not anything that you can catch unless you ask for it specifically.

 

Moral: Always use legitimate software, and never enter your Mac user's password if you aren't intending to install something, but you already knew that.