Posted on 10/24/2005 10:52:07 AM PDT by Panerai
Successful assaults by viruses and other malware on the Mac operating system are rare as it has better security and attackers are less keen, says Stephen Wildstrom of BusinessWeek. "There is endless debate among security experts about whether the paucity of successful assaults on Apple's OS X is attributable to better security or attackers' lack of interest in an operating system whose share of the market is in single digits. I think it's some of both." Wildstrom says one reason Mac OS X offers inherently better security is that it was designed with relatively little concern for compatibility with earlier versions, while Windows is full of compromises so that it works with older and less secure operating systems. Wildstrom also points out that "the ablest writers of viruses, spyware, and worms, are motivated more by profit than glory, and Windows, with 90%-plus of the market, is where the money is."
Mac OS X ping
Again, I would point out that there are viruses for freaking CELL PHONES, where the number of units in the field is 1% of the Mac population.
If it was based on sheer numbers, why would that be true?
Not that I dont believe that Macs are not a good platform - the reality is that punks dont create hacks for Mac because there are so few.
Why work hard to develop a virus or attack on a platform with few users when you can do the same ammount of work (maybe less) for an OS that can hit hundreds of times worse?
Wow. So in case any hacker was uninterested in this OS, your skills have now been officially challenged.
Mac users: "Mac OS cannot be hacked!"
99% of hackers: "What's a Mac?"
A cellphone virus is an elite hack. Mac OS X is a snoozer.
All the more reason for conviction of hacking crimes to carry mandatory castration - not that it would affect their lives much.
The mac platform is inherently more secure due to its basic design, processes need specific user permission to do the things that are easily done by any application in windows.
I'd recommend anyone looking at the security aspects of the Mac platform read Winn Schwartau's blog at: http://securityawareness.blogspot.com/2005/09/mad-as-hell-switching-to-mac-1-16.html, and you'll understand why so many network security professionals have switched to Mac.
Steve Jobs should announce a prize for the best hack of OS X. Maybe an iPod and a years subscription to iTunes. But iDigress.....
Yeh. Anyone stupid enough to announce publicly that his OS is unhackable will either be hacked within a week or already has been.
And in other news - The sky is blue and the Earth is round.
PLEASE, this has been stated time and time again for YEARS, with no ill effect.
Give me something that I can actually find applications for.
"ridiculous complexity required by the windows interface"
So what threw you - the 2nd & 3rd mouse buttons or the lack of the 'splat' key?
Can you cite some statistics? I don't know anyone in the professions outside of artists, desktop publishers or musicians who use them.
A Mac user worrying about getting hacked is like Helen Thomas worrying about getting an STD. It can happen, but it's not likely.
Odd, I run Filezilla on XP every freakin' day and have no problem with it.
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