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Mac Users' Security Smugness Set To Roll On For A While Yet
from the flame-on dept
Mac users had better watch out -- for all six instances of malicious code written to attack OS X that were discovered in the first half of the year. Of course, that's more than the zero that were found in the second half of 2005, so it's enough for CNN to say attacks on the Mac are rising. The claim that the virus found on a small number of iPods earlier this week "highlighted" the threat to Macs is even more bizarre, considering it was a Windows virus. But hey, a little Mac smack talk always makes for good headlines, as bloggers around the world have figured out, and there's no better way to rile up the fanboys (and generate some traffic) than to suggest that maybe the Mac isn't quite as secure as the legion of smug Mac users would like to think. Without getting into the actual security of OS X relative to other platforms, the key stat to watch is Apple's market share. A report this week said it's now up to 5.8%, and the common thinking is that as it continues to increase, Macs are at greater risk. This is true, but only to a certain extent. Most security attacks and viruses are now geared to deliver financial gain. As is pointed out in the original article, at under 6 percent market share, Macs aren't an attractive target. At 10 percent, Macs won't be an attractive target, nor even at double today's market share (assuming they followed Gartner's advice and quit making hardware). The small number of Mac users doesn't just mean there are fewer targets, but also that it's much harder for viruses to spread around. If a Mac user got a trojan that wanted to replicate to other Mac users, say, via emailing the users' contacts, it would only hit the fraction that were also Mac users, and so on and so on, making it much harder for it to spread. The tipping point where Mac market share makes it fruitful for virus writers to target Macs remains quite a ways off -- and ultimately, it's probably out of Apple's reach. Update: Perhaps some CNN editor actually read the story, since its headline has been softened from the original "Mac attacks rare but rising", to something with a little more wiggle room.
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Hee hee...
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Well...
-Anti Virus: Check
-Firewall: Check
-Backup Browsers: Check
-Multiple backups of data: Check
I'de rather be cautious, because you simply never know...
-zazie (a "smarter" mac user)
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Wait! That sounds like an awful lot of crap to do. Think I'll just install that Ubuntu Linux I saw on TV the other night. I'll just keep it updated and surf pr0n, fileshare, and play java games to my heart's content. That way I don't have to buy any new hardware.
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Re:
about the hardware update... well, yeah most people will need new hardware or entierly new pc to run vista (assuming they even upgrade to vista). i however, just built my pc, and all i need is a dx10 video card, which i was waiting for before i got one anyways (im lucky enough to have a friend that is willing to let me borrow his radeon x850xt until then--oh the irony of running a radeon on a 590sli board...)
on a side note, i dont go to pron sites cause im more worried about it destroying me than my pc--but that is a rant that im not going to get into here.
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Ok
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Honestly...
I see myself moving closer and closer to being a Mac-head 24/7, instead of as diversion and development server. The virus rate on Windows... is insane, and I'm pretty damn sure... mostly because of the permissions model.
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Virus count = superiority?
I guess this means my calculator is better than a mac, since mac users seem to base the mac's superiority almost completely on the fact that it has less virus written for it.
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Re: Virus count = superiority?
So to recap: no crashes, no lost data, no spyware or viruses and I can do anything and everything that Windows users can do but I keep doing it while you are rebooting, fixing your hardware profile, or scraping and re-installing Windows because you got a virus in the 2-3 day lag from when a virus is let loose and when AVG or Symantec or McAfee released the definition.
Why would anyone not like that? Oh yeah... IT professions and companies like Geeks on Call... because their livelihood depends on you using a system that keeps them employed.
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IMO, security all boils down to one thing: common sense. I have only had one virus in my lifetime, and that was during my first year on the computer.
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market share
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Who cares...
Its easy to pick on Microsoft because they are the 800lb gorilla,,... wahhh wahhh wahhh I can hear you whining now.
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Re: Re: Virus count = superiority?
What part of the market share deal don't you understand? You don't *really* have increased security. Hackers just have no interest in you.
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