Why Worms Shun Apple's OSX

Business Week ^ | 10/24/2005 | By Stephen H. Wildstrom

[Swordmaker]

Successful assaults by viruses and other malware on the Mac operating system are rare as it has better security and attackers are less keen

Ilya van Sprundel writes: In this article about the Mac Mini (see BW, 2/14/05, "And For Steve Jobs's Next Trick...") you say, "The Mac does have inherent security advantages, and it is much less prone to the sort of mysterious glitches that often make Windows a challenge."

I was wondering what "inherent security advantages" OS X has and why it is "much less prone to the sort of mysterious glitches." The only reason I can think of is that the hackers haven't turned on OS X yet.

[CheneyChick]

Money. They say that Money is the root of all evil.

Actually, it is the "love of money" that is the root of all evil. (1 Tim. 6:10) Money is still OK.

Cheers! CC :)

[zeugma]

Do you actually have a response, or is it enough to just spout FUD, then ignore detailed, factual rebuttals?</P>

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Do you actually have a response, or is it enough to just spout FUD, then ignore detailed, factual rebuttals?

LOL!!! I didn't realize that I was on some kind of freep timer where I had to respond immediately to rants. I apologize for having to work, and not post to FR, while at my job.

Anyway, I'll let you argue with the original article: "There is endless debate among security experts about whether the paucity of successful assaults on Apple's (AAPL) OS X is attributable to ... attackers' lack of interest in an operating system whose share of the market is in single digits." Have fun!

And like I said, nobody, that's NOBODY, has created a worm to attack the Commodore 64. Commodore 64 RULES!!!!

[zeugma]

Did you even bother to read that post I made? You're trying to continue to sow the "small marketshare" FUD line that seems to be relied on by so many windows bigots here as an article of faith.

Just to be clear, are you tring to claim that the available target of MacOS users is smaller than the mere 12,000 hosts sucessfully targeted by the "witty" worm?

Face the facts that windows is such a target because it is so easy to hack.

[goldstategop]

The hardware and software are built together from the ground up. That's why there fewer problems with Apple than Windows machines. Of course the paucity of worms written for OSX is due in no small part to Apple's small market share. As the Mac Mini becomes more popular, that will change. But its hard to write a virus or a worm for a UNIX based OS since there's no registry to write to and save information.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Swordmaker]

Of course the paucity of worms written for OSX is due in no small part to Apple's small market share.

There is no "of course" about it. The installed base of OS X is now over 18,000,000 (25,000,000 if you accept Newsweek's survey) and worms and viruses have been specifically written for much smaller installed bases than that. OS X has been in the wild now for over 5 years and we still have not seen its first virus or worm.

The real reason is the extreme difficulty of writing a self-propagating

malware for a machine that requires permissions to install and then again to execute for the first time... it's all about a lack of vectors that would allow the malware to spread.