Mac Security Ping!
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Posted on 03/07/2009 3:51:48 PM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
Apple Inc.'s Safari is the juiciest target in the upcoming PWN2OWN hacking contest, last year's winner predicted today.
"It's an easy target," said Charlie Miller, the vulnerability researcher who last year walked off with a $10,000 cash prize for breaking into an Apple laptop just a few minutes into the contest. PWNOWN is slated for its third appearance at the CanSecWest security conference later this month in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"It might be because I'm biased about the things I'm good at, but it's the easiest browser [to hack]," Miller said.
PWN2OWN's sponsor, 3Com Inc.'s TippingPoint unit, will pay $5,000 for each new bug successfully exploited in Safari, Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox or Google Inc.'s Chrome. IE8, Firefox and Chrome will be running on a Sony notebook powered by Windows 7, Microsoft's still-under-construction operating system, while Safari and Firefox will be available on a MacBook.
"Apple's products are really friendly to users, and Safari is designed to handle anything, including all kinds of file formats," said Miller. "With a lot of functionality comes the increased chance of bugs. The more complex software is, the less secure it is."
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
Actually IE8 is in RC stage so it’s not really a beta anymore, of course if you have used either of the RC’s you would disagree.
But I say to you, Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you,
and pray for them which spitefully use you,
and persecute you
I’ve made my living using Macs for the past twenty-plus years. The useful life of a Mac is considerably longer than a PC. The service calls, the downtime, all of it contribute to productivity.
As far as price, configure a comparable PC, at retail, feature for feature, and tell me they’re considerably less. They’re not.
You forgot the line thats to pay APPLE $200 for more RAM, I kid I kid.
Sorright...
Considerably longer? I don’t know about that. If you are talking the cheapie PC’s, then yeah, but for the mid-range and up they have as long a lifetime as Mac does, depending on what you do with it. That would go for Mac’s as well. If you are a graphics designer or some other power user then you effective lifetime for your PC is going to pretty short compared to other users as you will always want to have the best available components to power the software that will eat up every resource you can throw at it. However if you are the average user who does nothing more than websurfing and the occasional word document then the lifetime of your pc is as long as your hardware will ast, but too often consumers don’t see it that way.
Oh, so you are the lone defender on the thread. :-)
I build all my own PC’s. Loaded rarely cost over $400 or $500 MAX. Most of the software is FREE because everyone writes for XP.
Can you say the same? Do you drive a Prius too? Have a great weekend.
What, no Vista? LOL.
So, you build your own PCs. Good for you. What value do you assign for your time and labor? None? You should have a higher opinion of yourself.
And, no, I don't drive a Prius. Neither does Rush Limbaugh.
You mistake the intent of those who listen
What I see is a a Hate-On-Apple fest
It sort of depends one ones "prejudices"
Apple is the leading producer of laptop computers. They’re increasing marketshare overall, at the expense of Microsoft. Why is that, do you suppose? Are all these former Windows users stupid sheep, or could it be that they’re buying a better product?
On cost, point me to the comparable Windows machine, at retail, that is 1/3 less than the comparable Mac. I’d love to see it. What’s the old southernism ... “your mouth’s writing a check that your @$$ can’t cash,” lol.
Be sure to post a follow up when they actually find an exploit.
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So you run your PC with the OEM installed copy of WIndows and without virus protection or any other sort of third party security software? You leave the automatic update process turned on because you trust Windows updates to install as soon as they come out? Most Windows users that I know, including die-hard advocates who run Windows-only IT departments, sure don't.
Nice reporting... leaving out the fact that it was the 2nd day, after several layers of security (that is, by default, usually on) were taken down.
And I don't recall if it was this event, or the one the previous year, where the person that "won" had to have physical access to the machine.
Yes he is - nearly as leftist as Bill Gates and the Socialists over at Microsoft...
Of course, Internet Explorer is only safe because of its tiny market share. /smirk smirk
I've built my last four PCs. Seems like my average cost comes in around $700.
I'm usually aiming a a good compromise between general use and gaming, and try to stay about one wave behind the "cutting edge" in hardware.
Expect the next one to be cheaper though, because of the constantly dropping prices for the hardware.
Maybe next time I'll go with some flavor of Linux instead of Windows.
Not so. The bashing of Apple and its customers started in post #3, and comprises most of the thread thereafter. And I’m not surprised at all.
“None? You should have a higher opinion of yourself.”
I actually enjoy it. Quite relaxing and rewarding to get one right or fix a problem. Sort of like a big puzzle.
Had Vista, but dropped it. Waiting for WIN7. It seems nice.
Was in tech support for an ISP and had to tech Macs. They were annoying. Convinced me I didn’t want one. Fun to tease everyone in these Apple threads though. :-)
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