Posted on 11/20/2008 4:43:58 PM PST by Sammy67
Edited on 11/20/2008 4:48:23 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Thursday, November 20, 2008 The Pentagon has suffered from a cyber attack so alarming that it has taken the unprecedented step of banning the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVD's, FOX News has learned.
The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
There are now over 32,000,000 Macs in use around the world. When will we reach the magic number that will result in ONE viable self-replicating, self-transmitting computer virus that infects OS X Macs? When will Macs attract the attention of your hackers???
Keep in mind that the Witty Worm was written to infect vulnerable computers using Black Ice firewalls six months AFTER a patch was distributed to fix the vulnerability. The total number of potential vulnerable computers was just around 10,000. Every single one of them was infected 45 minutes after the Witty Worm was released into the wild. Why hasn't anyone written a Witty Worm for OS X Macs? Could it be that the architecture of the OS is far more secure than is Windows?
The G4 Mac Cube was designed without a cooling fan and worked fine without them.
There were some problems with heat on some first edition laptops in both the G3 and G4 but it wasn't generally related to any crashing... just hot laps. i did not experience this eitherprimarily because I didn't purchase any of those first edition laptops.
Military computers drastically limit which websites can be accessed and most emails with attachments not coming from another military email or contractor’s email are not delivered.
Most likely this was brought in on someone’s thumb drive as something they downloaded at home is the theory I’ve heard around here.
As for thumb drives and other externals, many offices purchase them for their senior mgmt as a way for them to work at home w/o having to take the laptop home. Much more can be lost if a laptop is misplaced or stolen.
we are so screwed.
Bingo.
I have worked on/owned Macs for nearly twenty years. I have never once had an issue with viruses, spyware, Trojan Horses, etc.
I also have had three Windows-based laptops for my other job. They are constantly alerting me to all of the above. I also have a semi-annual scrubbing done by our tech guys; they always find THs and viruses that my top-o-the-line security software does not.
I’m not a software engineer, but I know what works.
They misrepresented that event in tooting their own horn.
The Mac was breached only after the ‘user’ clicked on a link to a malicious site. Before that, some of the normal protections afforded by the Mac and the OS were intentionally compromised by the ‘user’.
I’ve used many Apple computers for years, and I am tech support for dozens of clients (over the years, probably hundreds of Apple computers), and I have never experienced, or heard from my clients that they experienced, any take-over of an Apple computer.
In the wild, it just doesn’t happen. To make it happen in a demonstration project, the user has to first do several stupid things to allow it to happen.
If it’s a gov’t issued thumb drive they are allowed to be hooked up to unclass computers, even in a classified office. Well at least until this week. All thumb drives must be turned in immediately.
Lets see.....who could have done this?
Does it start with a c and end with an a?
Canada I knew it. Or was it Cambodia? Maybe it was Cuba.
Unbelievable. The freaking DOD did not secure their computers by disabling the USB ports? I only work in insurance, and my company has been doing that for a couple of years. Who the #@#$%&! is running that place?
Everything classified is. But the military does work with a lot of unclassified systems, and those are for the most part plugged in to the Internet, although with a LOT of security hardware in between.
Well, there's your problem right there. If you were using it for a few years prior to 2004, that would mean you were running 10.0-10.3. You have to go to 10.4 in 2005 (after you lost your Macs) to get the first truly good version of OS X. And unless you were on a G5, you were using the PPC 7 series, which was seriously showing its age around that time compared to Intel/AMD. Five year-old experiences with Macs are mostly meaningless.
All new computers are loaded with Vista. Theyd be better loading legacy Win XP, but you cant buy it anymore.
The DoD can still load as much XP as it wants under its enterprise licenses.
Good point.
LOL. I really wasn't going to specify, but yeah, Linux would be my choice. OSX is good too. as long as you don't mind DRM-enabled operating systems.
I’ve not experienced any problems with the imac that weren’t of my own doing. I am still learning how to use my mac, but I absolutely love turning it on and it’s ready to go. I also love not having to wait for all the Windows updates and virus scans every day.
And of course now dh has purchased us iPhones, so here I go again, trying to learn how to use it. It’s been pretty simple, even for me. I just want to learn how to make my own ringtones on Garage Band or find somewhere that’s free.
I’ve rarely met a person who has not loved the mac once they vowed to give it a try.
My theory (in case you’re interested, lol)...
The Jihadists are simply the “military branch” of the real war we are fighting here. Add Russia to China, and then you’re starting to get a clearer picture I believe. We are in a World War against the Communists & their Muslim allies, it’s all a matter of reading between the lines at this point though. Very few people - and most definitely not the media - speak to the real dangers, and real problems our country is facing right now. It’s a real shame because if people knew the truth I highly doubt they would’ve elected a Freshman Senator to deal with these problems no matter how much they “hated” Bush.
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