Posted on 06/27/2011 10:21:23 PM PDT by Gomez
Microsoft is telling Windows users that they'll have to reinstall the operating system if they get infected with a new rootkit that hides in the machine's boot sector.
A new variant of a Trojan Microsoft calls "Popureb" digs so deeply into the system that the only way to eradicate it is to return Windows to its out-of-the-box configuration, Chun Feng, an engineer with the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC), said last week on the group's blog.
"If your system does get infected with Trojan:Win32/Popureb.E, we advise you to fix the MBR and then use a recovery CD to restore your system to a pre-infected state," said Feng.
A recovery disc returns Windows to its factory settings.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
You present a bunch of car thieves three cars to break into, and they can legally keep what they get. You have a Ferrari, a Lexus and a Ford Focus.
Strange, every year the Ferrari gets taken first, then the Lexus, and sometimes they don’t even bother with the Ford.
The Macs will always be the first to fall because they will be the first attacked. The losers of the initial Mac-hack competition have to settle for the inferior Windows hardware that’s offered.
Quit whining. You and a cadre of crap throwers show up on every mac thread there is and toss your intellectual ordure and are thin on facts, heavy on hyperbole and FUD. Knock it off.
The only FUD I've seen on this thread was about Macs. I did see mention of alternative operating systems that could alleviate the malware problem for a user. That is a helpful suggestion because many users don't actually know alternatives exist. I also saw the suggestion of using real Windows in a virtual to alleviate the problem Linux users have of big title software availability.
“Macbots “
Whatever, flaming hypocrite Winbot. You whine about name-calling, and toss out “macbot”...
Let’s see on this thread:
First instance of insult towards the other platform and its users: #11, “Mac’s are mostly used by liberals who feel good about overpriced crap. I do mean crap.”
First instance of lie against the other platform, meaning also the first instance of FUD: #13, “I can have a computer 10X better than a Mac for $300. The same Mac would cost me $3,000”
That post has another insult: “Mac in general are for dolts and their money quickly departed. “
First use of *bot insult: #37, “I’m told that Macbots never post stuff in Windows threads like use a mac instead.”
First false claim of FUD: #40, “Why do the macbots feel it neccessary to muddy up windows threads with FUD?” FUD is fear, uncertainty and doubt, generally lies and half-truths about the other system. As documented, the first FUD on this thread was against Macs.
For future reference, please note where the lack of civility — direct insults, hostility, lies and name-calling — begins. It’s with the PC proponents.
The first one, liberals comment is mine, the only one thats mine and I stand by it. It is accurate for the overall average user of mac products. So I’ll give you what ever heads up you think I should and how about you give me a heads up when I will be responsible for every one else’s comments. Kind of back to the liberal thing? 10x’s better for 10% of the price is a great exageration but the fact is dollar per kick ass a pc wins hands down. I have never used the word macbot before this sentence. I don’t care if mac people use this forum or any forum for posting. I have never used the word dolt before this sentence. And since you left it out a poster that said we would have no problems if we bought a mac is what started it and is just as much a lie (a great exageration) as the others you quote and just as rude.
Of course it's yours. It would not have been courteous to quote your post without pinging you.
It is accurate for the overall average user of mac products.
If indeed that is true, then it is still an insult in the context used. You are effectively saying that because the majority are liberals, those here must also be liberals. Calling a conservative a liberal is an insult. Go tell Rush.
10x’s better for 10% of the price is a great exageration but the fact is dollar per kick ass a pc wins hands down.
Extreme exaggeration, in fact impossible. However, if you want to go realistic, dollar for dollar, value for value, the Mac is quite competitive, and even wins depending on what the user wants in a computer.
And since you left it out a poster that said we would have no problems if we bought a mac is what started it and is just as much a lie
It wasn't a lie, it was a solution. Your likelihood of being rooted on a Mac or Linux is a fraction of a percent of your likelihood on Windows. Fact.
Isn’t Linux a version of Unix? I think I’ve been clear on my Linux thoughts.
Wasn’t there a huge hack for OSX through Skype? (To mention just one.)
After some research yesterday I found its not that its harder to fix a compromised machine but rather the attitude of Mac users (can’t happen to me) that is the issue. So there I stand corrected.
More programs for Mac, don’t think so and if emulators count my SUSE wins.
So windows runs faster than OSX? On OSX’s designed machine? Why did Mac move to the X86 platform? The highest rated Mac I find is a 2 cpu 6 core each @2.93 ghtz. PC can do better.
I know that everytime a buddy with a mac wants to upgrade it he can’t outside of a few minor things. When I build a pc I decide what cpu/ram/video I want and then buy the mobo that uses them at the bottom of its compatibility list. Mac doesn’t, to be fair neither do almost all big box PC makers. So to put that in perspective the pc I’m on right now started life with an amd athlon 2.o ghtz single core and without anything changed in the os or mobo is a dual core 3.0 ghtz. Finaly a clarifier, my knowledge of macs is hardware and its similarities to linux. I never said its a bad os just that I wouldn’t want the Mac hardware. I know I can get around the Mac hardware requirement if I wanted to but with Suse why would I.
I guess you missed the first post to this thread?
keep telling yourself that lie. Maybe one day—you’ll believe it.
But in the meantime the hackers will be taking down OSX quicker than any other OS in the competition. You know if it was truly secure this wouldn’t happen. And neither would the Malware infestation that broke out on Macs that can install without admin password.
It's true. Even if some people are correct in that Macs get far less malware purely because of the lower marketshare, it still remains a fact: Macs get less malware. So does Linux. Thus posting that a Mac or Linux switch will lessen your malware problems is helpful and absolutely true advice. Relatively within Windows, suggesting to upgrade from XP to Win7 to lessen malware is also helpful and true advice. That doesn't mean such posters are spreading FUD about XP. "FUD" does not mean "any post you don't like."
You know if it was truly secure this wouldn’t happen.
I can make any computer truly secure by unplugging it and filling it with concrete. Otherwise, all running computers are susceptible to being hacked. The question is the relative security, and Mac easily has Windows beat. It's not my fault the security people want a MacBook Pro more than they want a Sony Vaio running Windows. Windows would have been hacked first had the desire been reversed.
The rules are the rules, regardless of what YOU want them to be, and the hackers CHOOSE to go after the most desirable target... the Mac first. That is documented. You are dancing to try and make the reason another reason. There is no other. The order of attack is what it is, the choices are the contestants'. That is what happened. I can't and you can't change that. If they went after Windows, then Windows would have lost four years in a row first. They didn't. End of story.
It means NOTHING except which computer is the most desirable prize to win among expert crackers. Every time they've wanted the Mac laptop.
That is the ONLY thing one can learn from this exercise. Especially when the winner says explicitly that his exploit could have been applied to ANY of the target computers!
You keep raising this canard and it is ONLY a strawman argument because it is easily refuted by the facts. The facts state that every single contestant decided to target the Mac. The first contestant in a contest where the contestant had months to prepare, composed of expert crackers with pre-prepared exploits, in all of the contests won the Mac... SO WHAT?! Windows fell just as quickly when they turned their attention to it, when the next hacker, no longer able to try and win the Mac (it was no longer a target!), pulled out his second line attack, but also rans don't make headlines, especially for the umpteenth thousand crack of a holey, multiple times cracked system. No one was surprised.
After TEN YEARS of trying there is one Trojan exploit that succeeded—but STILL required the Administrative User to accept the installation and click continue THREE TIMES, ignoring warnings that the installation was a Trojan: it still required industrial strength stupid to do. That exploit has been closed.
Keep dancing.
No. It is a UNIX-like operating system. OS X is certified UNIX and actually has a code pedigree to early UNIX.
Why did Mac move to the X86 platform?
PowerPC manufacturers were unable and/or unwilling to provide performance in their chips with low power consumption. Jobs saw the future was in low-power, and saw that Intel's upcoming roadmap ditching the Pentium 4 architecture was low-power.
The highest rated Mac I find is a 2 cpu 6 core each @2.93 ghtz. PC can do better.
One of the problems with Apple is that their updates are further apart, so that near the end of a product cycle it may be lower-performance than the competition. Right now we are at the very end of a Mac Pro product cycle, everyone recommends not to buy. They tend to use the latest processors at the beginning of a new cycle, which will be Jul/Aug.
However, Intel is known to give Apple special consideration on the newest chips, so a newly-released Mac Pro may be be matched by no PC product. The Mac Pro had exclusivity for the newest Xeons a while back. And remember the MacBook Air's processor with the ultra-thin packaging? It was at least six months before any other OEM got one.
the pc I’m on right now started life with an amd athlon 2.o ghtz single core and without anything changed in the os or mobo is a dual core 3.0 ghtz.
I started with a 486/66 and frankenputered it through several processors all the way up to an Athlon 1000. The only original thing left was the case, and I eventually dumped that, leaving the PS/2 keyboard. Then I got an Athlon 1333 for my wife, eventually upgraded it through an X64 with a new mobo and GPU. Then I decided my time was better spent doing other things.
Horses for courses.
Oh, and I forgot the rule change this year that TRULY made the CanSecWest contest irrelevant! The judges decided that, unlike all previous contests, the hackers did not have to hack the most up-to-date version of the OS and software on it... they could hack the previous-to-last versions, so that their prepared hacks would work! WOW! The security breach the winner used had been closed BEFORE THE CONTEST was even held! Way to go, CanSecWest, FUD rules the day!
Funny you added linux to the mix...at least most linux people understand that it is susecptible to getting a virus and that it has as many if not more security issues as Windows over the years. only Macbots believe OSX is more secure than the current flavors of windows and Linux.
Ok now to use your same point against you. The reason windwos machines are attacked more often on the Internet is htey are the most deisrable target.
Hey we agree. Both are about equally secure or insecure, the only difference is which one is more desirable. In competition hackers will want the overpriced item, in the real world hackers will want the most users to get the most bang for their buck.
Now we finally agree.
LOL! Me keep dancing? You’re the one trying to downplay that hackers when finally there was enough OSX users in the wild came up with a hack that installed malware without the user’s password.
Incredible. I can’t believe you don’t have a better spin on this.
so you’re saying that hack didn’t exist prior to the competition? Or was it there and it just wasn’t exploited in the wild? If so that leaves me leary about the secuirty of OSX. The chicoms don’t need to wait for a contest to hack computers.
“No. It is a UNIX-like operating system.”
Unix based, immeasurably more “open source” and just as secure as Mac OSX.
“One of the problems with Apple is that their updates are further apart,” ... “everyone recommends not to buy.”
Thanks for agreeing with one of my points.
“However, Intel is known to give Apple special consideration on the newest chips,”
Another can of worms I’m sure but I prefer AMD for the same reasons I don’t prefer Macs.
“I started with a 486/66 and frankenputered it through several processors all the way up to an Athlon 1000.”
I only changed the cpu and fan. If we start looking at case, mobo, etc. it went from a celeron 1.5 I think. I used an old Compaq case and put the kids PC in a new fancy one to confuse a theif. (Really.)
I do respect anyone that prefers a Mac for a real reason. You appear to be one. To be honest our conversation has left me thinking I should be a little more tactful in my posting. I also have found some new info on osx by your comments and researching them. You have made me a better person in a small way and thanks. The day Apple says its ok for PC users to put it on the PC I’ll try it for sure. Its like green eggs and ham I suppose.
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