Popcorn anyone? — PING!
Apple OS X v. Microsoft Windows
Ping!
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Posted on 08/10/2015 2:23:13 AM PDT by Leaning Right
Apple’s vaunted reputation for safety and security has taken some hits recently. Just this week came news of DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE — a bug in Apple’s OS X operating system that has allowed a malicious program to take complete control of Macs.
*snip*
When it comes to security flaws, Windows and OS X are now about tied, says Morey Haber, VP of technology at corporate security software maker BeyondTrust.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Less than a decade ago, an Apple computer and an IBM PC or its clones were entirely different architecture. While that hasn't been the case since 2006, in the public consciousness they're still different, and the definition of "PC" has subtly shifted to mean "computer running Windows."
To answer the question in the article, between OS X and Windows, OS X is intrinsically more secure, as are all operating systems based on UNIX, such as Linux and BSD. The last is a particularly secure flavour of UNIX, and also happens to be the OS that OS X is derived from. UNIX is designed from the ground up to be a multi-user system, which means that the damage that can be done by a virus or malware is generally limited to the user who introduced it.
That's assuming the user doesn't do something stupid like grant the malware some kind of superuser access. The end user is often the weakest link in any security scheme.
Actually, you are wrong in your implication because people will assume that it is all Honda Accords that are at risk, it's not. The car thieves go after the easiest to steal. Similarly, hackers go after the computers that are easiest to hack into. Here is a list of the cars that were most likely to be stolen in 2011 as compiled by the National Crime Information Bureau, published by Forbes in 2012, in order of frequency of theft:
Yes, there are no Bentley's on there, but there are no brand new, up-to-date Honda's either.
The takeaway from this is the hackers are going to go for the easy to break into.
It is similar to a burglar going into a neighborhood and seeing two houses. One with a burglar alarm, very secure locks, and a sign saying "This home protected by Smith & Wesson!". . . and one without alarms, simple locks and a sign saying "Gun Free Zone and proud of it!". Which is he going to burglarize?
There are some browser based ransomware out there for Mac OS X Safari and even for Chrome and FireFox. . . They are intended to entrap people unaware of how to get rid of them. Apple has pretty much closed the door on the Safari ones, but who knows if someone will figure out another one next week. The best bet for that is to run AdBlock. That prevents a malicious Advertising to open multiple Safari windows that look exactly like the Window the ad exists on, then open the ransomware requestor that will not let you out until you call their phone number and pay the ransom. You can force quit Safari and re-open Safari without tabs to get out of it, but some people don't know that, or in their panic don't think of it.
Spaghetti code if you ever saw it. Where's my fork.
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True, those are a little different, and like most things designed to attack a mac, are more dependent on fooling the person into putting in their password as opposed to something that weasels its way into the system without the knowledge of the owner.
I am not one of those people who maintain Macs don’t get viruses and malware, which is a straw-man sometimes thrown into these discussions.
Anything can be “got”, unless it is a standalone system with no network connections behind secure doors...:)
My office PC [they make me use one] ... gets infected all the time. Yeah, we have firewalls and they install all sorts of protection.
They have to take it away and scrub it an bring it back. Then it will happen again eventually.
Not once in over 25-28 years has my home Mac been infected and I do not use anti-virus.
It is??? Coulda fooled me.
Looks like these two essential same notebooks are equal price. . . except the Apple MacBook Air comes with a full spectrum of software including Pages, a Microsoft Word file compatible word processor, Numbers, an Excel file compatible spread sheet program, KeyNote, a Microsoft PowerPoint file compatible presentation application, Mail, an Outlook capable mail client, Garageband, Photos, for cataloging and manipulating your photo library, iTunes, Safari, Caledar, integrated with all Apple devices, Maps, Messages, FaceTime, iBooks, and a lot more. . . and NO CRAP WARE.
Well, so far, there have been no true computer viruses as properly defined for the Apple Mac OS X system in over seventeen years of trying. There are approximately 68 known computer Trojan applications in now eight families or styles of attack mode for OS X, which use social engineering to persuade the user to download and install them on the computer. All of these at this time are recognized by OS X and the user is warned before completing the download, again before installing the download if he went ahead and did that stupid thing, and then once more before running the downloaded trojan. The warnings require the input of an Administrator name and password before the user can continue, not just a simple "OK" or "Continue" button. It takes industrial strength stupidity to actually get infected on an Apple OS X computer. . . but it can be done.
And, of course, there is the risk of that very rare new family Trojan with a Zero Day attack possibility that the OS X system will not recognize. . . but to get one of those, you'd have to be downloading from a non-trusted source server, because Apple has the OS X Mac App Curated App store now and issues certificates to other trusted suppliers of software.
Microsoft has followed that lead.
Wait which version of Windows are you comparing it to? If Windows XP then be sure to compare XP to OS 9 or the original OS X.
If the latest windows 10 vs latest OS X then Windows 10 has less vulnerabilities as of today.
So the Zero day attack deal is pretty bad then right? It sounds like some stuff I saw on windows years ago. Get a user to click and link and wammo. Take over a website and load your payload and have users visit a “good” site and wammo. Or am I not understanding that one properly?
Apple Macs are safer. But I'm in agreement that users have brought bad habits as they move from Windows to Macs. I spent years as a Windows Admin fixing problems. A lot of problems were created by idiot users loading crap on their machines. I had to repeatedly re-ghost machines that were corrupted, and put in security measures to block users. Problems would come back due to those same users, for various reasons (often due to politics where they had friends bypass security measures).
I've had to admonish Mac users to not use the default admin account as their main account, as well as to make use of a secure password. I mean these as common sense precautions that people ignore. Having a fence around your property does no good if the gate is always open and unlocked. Idiots invite problems. If you use common sense precautions, Apple Macs are inherently safer than Windows machines.
Brings to mind...
You cannot make a system foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
Same here. I presume you and I both use email and surf the internet slightly differently on a PC than we do on a Mac, but the bottom line is...we do view emails suspiciously, and anything that makes us enter our password stops us in our tracks and makes us reevaluate.
That they are. And they have idiot friends in management. When I worked on this stuff, desktop machines had floppy drives and dvd drives. I would have my techs disable external connections including USB ports to keep outside crap off the machines. Users were caught having their buddies opening up the desktop machines to fiddle with them. Management never did more than slap their wrists. These same users would sooner or later be complaining that they needed our help to fix their busted machine, busted because of them bypassing our efforts. The fools are everywhere!
I'll do a Windows ping too... it's been at least a day since the last food fight! :-)
What's Safer From Hackers? ... PING!
Thanks to Swordmaker for the Mac ping, here's a Windows ping to match!!
Right. If I deviate on my Mac from installing by allowing any source and not trusted...I do it very deliberately, and only if I know I have the right software.
Funny, when I am with my brother who does PC support, when he needs to download a specific program to do something, and he can’t get it in the usual “safe” places where you can get Windows software, there usually follows an amusing period of hemming and hawing, gritting of teeth, and uncertainty that is very similar to watching someone who is going to jump off of a boat into water that *might* contain alligators...:)
LOL...the phone rings, and it is that person “up the food chain” who you KNEW was going to call sooner or later, because...that is just the way they are. They can be as careless as they want, and you know you will have to drop everything and rescue them...:)
It’s our life!
Nothing is immune. There really is no debate. Only stupid people think X platform is, and those people are the careless ones that get hacked because they leave every door and “window” open while they go on a 3 month vacation.
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