Posted on 09/22/2009 6:08:18 AM PDT by Sudetenland
Hackers just like the PC more.
Regardless of which side you're on (though as a true computing enthusiast, you shouldn't be taking sides), you've heard the arguments back and forth on the which operating system is truly safer – Mac OS X or Windows.
It is of the opinion of Charlie Miller, a well known Mac security guru, that even Snow Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS X, isn't as safe as Windows.
One key point is that Snow Leopard still doesn't have ASLR, or address space layout randomization, which randomly arranges the position of key data making it harder for hackers to target for exploits.
Miller said to TechWorld that Apple didn't change the ASLR from 10.5 to 10.6: "Apple didn't change anything. It's the exact same ASLR as in Leopard, which means it's not very good."
Apple didn’t completely missed the chance to tighten up security in Snow Leopard though, as the new QuickTime solves a lot of the issues that Mac OS X had before.
"Apple rewrote a bunch of QuickTime," said Miller, "which was really smart, since it's been the source of lots of bugs in the past."
One thing that Snow Leopard did adapt, which Windows has had since XP SP2, is DEP (data execution prevention). With DEP, buffer overflow attacks are much harder to execute.
Despite Miller's opinion that Windows is the more secure OS, the large install based of Microsoft-based systems make them a much more attractive target for hackers. Still, Miller would like to see security on all platforms.
"Snow Leopard's more secure than Leopard, but it's not as secure as Vista or Windows 7," he said. "When Apple has both [in place], that's when I'll stop complaining about Apple's security."
Source : Tom's Hardware US
Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware (both free) will get rid of almost all of these. What most people do not realize is that the cleaninng programs are much better these days and can get rid of the junk without causing problems.
Also if you are using Norton or McAfee get rid of them as they are junk. You are better off with AVG Free or AntiVir Free. BOth of the free ones will do a better job.
Hackers are not interested in MAC because they are such a small share of the market, why bother.
A good hacker can hack anything, but wants a big bang for their buck....go for the PC the largest market.
That's a bit rich coming from a guy, who's very tag line, is one of the biggest pieces of disinformation about Windows I have ever seen isn't it?
You are the Ayatollah of classic lefty tactics. And you turn round and compound it all by accusing others of exactly what you are doing. Now that is classic left tactics.
This has been debunked so many times we need a macro for the response.
All software has issues.
Macs and other Unices are safer than the predominant OS because of better design. It takes something like 3 separate affirmative actions by a user to get malware to install on a Mac.
So far, there are zero self-propagating viruses in the wild for OSX, when it has a userbase somewhere around 50 million, (conservatively - I don't know the exact number), yet worms have spread on the internet when the global target of the worm was only 10K devices.
Please tell us what the magic number is that will suddenly have us see the spread of viruses and worms like you see out there in the MS-Windows world. Is it 60M, 100M? Why not give us a number rather than just continuing to spout debunked FUD?
Only 7 posts before the Thread Police arrive.
Is it? In the 15 years I've been running Linux, I've never:
Can you say the same thing about Windows?
Well Duh , so can a thousand others. FUDMiller's claim to fame is that if you give him the Root(administrative)
password, he can crack a system.
This entire thread is a FUD-fest. Keep repeating the install base “theory” and hope others accept it as fact.
You would think by now, one person would want the notoriety of writing the first Mac virus to bring down this itsy bitsy user base.
Oh, and yes I do earn my living working Windows, but a Windows OS will never be my personal OS again.
Sorry, the article is typical FUD that comes out, right around the time of an MS OS release.
40 years of experience of OS and computer design is my guide.
While as I said, Windows 7 is better, it’s still not good enough.
\
MS produces BS studies throughout the years.
wooh Come down buddy.
My answer was the simple answer. I if were a hacker why bother with such small market share. On the other hand I might make it my life’s mission to crack them wide open and be “the hacker”.
Oh, and by the way I am not PC but MAC.........
Regular as clockwork.
Funny thing is, I think I've spent something like 5 minutes on a Mac my whole life. I respond to Mac FUD largely because of the gratuitous insults tossed around by MS-Windows users. I prefer Linux to Mac because it suits the way I work better from what I've seen. Next computer zeugma's wife gets will be a Mac though. She's not as happy with Linux as I am.
Not thread police. Just pointing out that there may be comments of use on the previous thread. Personally, I don't mind dupes, especially when they are separated by a couple of days, as it gives more folk an opportunity to view/comment on the topic than might otherwise do so.
“So, if 35 million computers isn’t enough, give me a number of macs that need to be out there before the whole “there aren’t enough macs” line is no longer justified.”
The real reason hackers don’t go for Macs.
The owner has already spent all of his money on a Mac, an iPhone, a MacBook, the newest iPhone, an iPod, 500 iPhone applications and a subscription to every Mac magazine. So they have no money left.
The Mac owner has a couple of hundred tunes that he bought for a buck apiece on iTunes. The hacker got all of these for free years ago on newsgroups.
Most of the keystrokes you can steal by hacking a Apple user involve them telling another Apple user about the latest and greatest Apple product they bought, the latest magazine/internet article about an upcoming Apple product they plan to buy when it is released, the latest Mac vs PC commercial which they think is the greatest one yet, or the latest news about Steve Jobs.
The problem is, the simple answer really doesn't cut it these days as we have actual history and examples of systems with vanishingly small numbers being actively targeted. The "simple answer" makes sense to a lot of people because they don't actually know what they are talking about.
Actually this thread is pretty full of anti-Mac zealots.
Well,............
Whether that is true or not(and anyone can say anything on the internet top push an agenda which you clearly have), that doesn't mean there are no viruses for Linux.
From Kerpersky.:
The myth of *nix security
http://www.viruslist.com/en/weblog?weblogid=208187702
Viruses: not a Linux problem?
http://www.viruslist.com/en/weblog?weblogid=170272380
“Had a trojan”
Here ya go:
“The number of malicious programs—including viruses, Trojans, and other threats—specifically written for Linux has been on the increase in recent years and more than doubled during 2005 from 422 to 863”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware
“
Run anti-virus”
That is your choice, but then there is now plenty of anti-virus products for Linux, on account of the fast increasing number of viruses, trojans etc that are being written for Linux out there. See my link above. They wouldn't be selling anti-Virus for linux if there were no market for the product would they?
“Cleaned up the drive (de-fragmented it)”
I like defragin my drive. You just schedule it overnight or when you are not using the computer. It makes the computer run better. It's free CPU cycles being used. What is there not to like about that?
“Can you say the same thing about Windows? “
Given that I have had anti-virus/malware software on my computers for years, and they are automatically kept up to date, I don't even remember the last time I had any virus attack n any Windows computer of mine. Been happily running my Windows PC's with no problems at all, thank you very much.
And oh, Windows runs all the essential apps that I need, plus every single AAA game out there.
You can't say the same about Linux.
Got any more strawman arguments to make?
Uh...geee, compared to a billion PC’s running Winders, Macs are just a flea-spec of very expensive, elitist, insignificance. The poseur’s computer.
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