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Is There a Virus Threat for Macs?
The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 11, 2006 | Walter S. Mossberg

Posted on 05/11/2006 1:24:06 PM PDT by quidnunc

There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.

Here are a few questions about computers I've received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained a question about security software for Macs.

If you have a question, send it to me at mossberg@wsj.com, and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg's Mailbox.

Q: There's been a lot of press lately about increased virus activity on the Macintosh platform. Should Mac owners now be running the same kinds of security software that Windows owners use?

A: There is no sudden security crisis on the Apple Macintosh platform. In fact, for average Mac users, there isn't a security threat of any significance, at least not yet. It is laughable to compare the real, massive and burdensome security problems on Windows with the largely theoretical security problem on the Mac.

As I have said in the past, no operating system is invulnerable to attack, including Apple's Mac OS X operating system, which powers Macintosh computers. It is possible to write malicious software for the Mac, including viruses and spyware, and it is possible for this software to spread in the wild, infecting many Macs.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at ptech.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: impossible; jobsisgod; macsareperfect
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1 posted on 05/11/2006 1:24:07 PM PDT by quidnunc
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To: Swordmaker; HAL9000

FYI


2 posted on 05/11/2006 1:25:36 PM PDT by quidnunc (Omnis Gaul delenda est)
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To: quidnunc
"Macs no longer immune to viruses, experts say".

It's one thing when Windows fails, but when your god fails . . . .
Ed from ocworkbench.com LOL

3 posted on 05/11/2006 1:33:26 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; ...

4 posted on 05/11/2006 1:34:55 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: quidnunc

"Virus Threat for Macs?"

That does it; I'm switching to Burger King!


5 posted on 05/11/2006 1:35:01 PM PDT by butternut_squash_bisque (The recipe's at my FR HomePage)
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To: butternut_squash_bisque

LOL!


6 posted on 05/11/2006 1:38:16 PM PDT by jdm
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To: Echo Talon
From the ocworkbench article, this sums up most Mac users

Very recently, I spoke to someone who is interested in Apple because his daughter has one of their notebooks. Well, the way she describes it to him, I'm not sure who really build her machine: Apple or God. Maybe He's the OEM.

LOL

7 posted on 05/11/2006 1:38:34 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: Echo Talon
Ack! NOT ocworkbench.com, overclockers.com
8 posted on 05/11/2006 1:39:33 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: quidnunc
Beware of crime statistics spread by lock salesmen.

Some of the biggest problems have been CAUSED by Symantec anti-virus stuff.

MacFixit.

9 posted on 05/11/2006 2:06:27 PM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: quidnunc

For years and years I was told by my grandmother that she never had to lock her front door in her small town, because she trusted that nobody would break in. However, she'd never do that in a big city like New York.

Macs are safe because they're such a tiny amount of the computer universe that it isn't worth a hacker's effort to even troll IP addresses to find one.

Is the fact that your computer is so small of the market share that hackers don't care about it really a selling point?


10 posted on 05/11/2006 2:35:09 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: quidnunc

Maybe if you use Bausch and Lomb's Renu to clean your screen!


11 posted on 05/11/2006 2:52:41 PM PDT by Young Werther
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To: Yo-Yo
Macs are safe because they're such a tiny amount of the computer universe

No, no, and no. Macs are inherently safer because almost all apps will happily run in a Limited User Account, even that stinking QuickBooks.

WinXP is a remarkably stable OS, even more stable and corruption resistant than OS X Tiger, IF AND ONLY IF, it's run in a limited account. And there's the kicker, Intuit demands QuickBooks 2006 run as Administrator or Power User. Even Microsoft says don't waste your time with Power User.

And the average user runs as Admin because who knows how to beat QB into a user account? Well, almost no one. The instructions are in the Intuit database, if you've got a normal networked machine with workgroup joining, just modify the hive keys and skip the directory perm mods. I fergit the KB #, but search it for LUA sometime in mid December 2005. It woiks.

By the way, I know people who run Tiger as admin (they never created user accounts), and their computers are infested with the most amazing stuff. People, use the limited accounts. It's almost impossible to get into the OS files.

Here's where MS shares the blame. The "Certified for XP" means it'll run properly in the limited account, and nothing else. Even though Intuit products, QB and LaCert, must run as admin and open dozens of ports, MS still let them use this trademark. MS screwed up royally.

12 posted on 05/11/2006 4:34:58 PM PDT by spudsmaki
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To: Echo Talon
It's one thing when Windows fails, but when your god fails . . . . Ed from ocworkbench.com LOL

Thank you. It is fun to read the FUD from ignorant people who have not used an OS X Mac... which would describe Ed from ocworkbench.com, a website dedicated to geeks who overclock their PCs.

13 posted on 05/11/2006 4:41:28 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!")
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To: Yo-Yo

Ridiculous. Imagine the notoriety that the first hacker to crack the Mac would receive amongst his peers. That's incentive.

There is a lot of protection built into the Mac OS. Not ironclad protection, but way more than a Windoze box.


14 posted on 05/11/2006 4:46:21 PM PDT by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: Yo-Yo
Macs are safe because they're such a tiny amount of the computer universe that it isn't worth a hacker's effort to even troll IP addresses to find one.

The small market share of Macs is one reason for the lack of viruses, but not the only one.

Is the fact that your computer is so small of the market share that hackers don't care about it really a selling point?

Well, it's just the flip side of "you should use Windows because it has more software". Neither speaks to the actual quality of the platform.

15 posted on 05/11/2006 4:51:04 PM PDT by ThinkDifferent (Chloe rocks)
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To: quidnunc
Mac humor (video)
16 posted on 05/11/2006 4:53:00 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric cartman voice* “I love you guys”)
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To: Swordmaker
Thank you. It is fun to read the FUD from ignorant people who have not used an OS X Mac... which would describe Ed from ocworkbench.com, a website dedicated to geeks who overclock their PCs.

Ed has used OS X and it is overclockers.com not ocworkbench.com

17 posted on 05/11/2006 5:07:23 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: spudsmaki
By the way, I know people who run Tiger as admin (they never created user accounts), and their computers are infested with the most amazing stuff. People, use the limited accounts. It's almost impossible to get into the OS files.

Bovine Excrement, spudsmaki!!! Tons of it!

Exactly WHAT "amazing stuff" has infested these "Tiger users" OS X computers? You are making this up as you go and revealing your ignorance of Macs.

Show us Mac users who have NEVER seen one, exactly what "amazing stuff" can currently infest our MAc OS X Tiger computers. Provide Chapter and Verse. I challenge you.

First of all the Admin account on a Mac, as it comes out of the box IS a user level account. There is one level above the Mac Admin account called "Root" that must be invoked (It is actually TURNED OFF in a default, just out of the box Mac) before you can do damage to the OS files. Windows users' computers start at the Admin level which is equivalent to Root on the Mac and can damage or destroy their OS files. To install software or modify protected areas even at Admin level on a Mac requires the user to provide a recognized administrator user name and password.

As to your "their computers are infested with the most amazing stuff" comment, you demonstrate you haven't got even a remote clue... There simply IS NOT anything to be infested with! As Walt Mossberg stated in his article:

As of today, there have been exactly two documented, successful pieces of malicious software -- viruses, trojan horses, worms -- that affected users of the Mac OS X operating system, since it was released in 2001. And these two failed to spread much, affecting probably a few dozen people, and doing no harm. I expect there to be a small number of additional Mac viruses this year.

By contrast, there are over 100,000 reported viruses for Windows, some of which have affected millions of people and have done significant economic damage. As for spyware, I know of no documented cases on Mac OS X, while there are certainly thousands on Windows. These Windows viruses and spyware can't run on the Mac operating system, even on Macs powered by the same Intel processors used by Windows PCs.

In fact, Spud, the malicious software that Mossberg refers to are two trojans... malicious applications that were masquerading as something else and use psychology of the user as a means of spreading. In addition, the ONLY trojan that had the supposed potential to spread on its own took TWO Mac experts from Macworld and TWO security experts from Secunia SIX hours to get it to infect from one wide open Mac to another wide open Mac (both running in admin level) ... and even then it required the infectee to actually accept the package, unZip it, and install it!

So, Spud, exactly what is "infesting" these Macs your friends are running?

18 posted on 05/11/2006 5:10:47 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!")
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To: Steve Van Doorn
Mac humor (video)

LOL!

19 posted on 05/11/2006 5:12:48 PM PDT by Echo Talon
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To: Echo Talon
Ed has used OS X and it is overclockers.com not ocworkbench.com

I doubt that Ed has used OS X... I think he may have played around with one... but not used it.

I was merely repeating your citation... Overclockers.com is a site for geeks who like to tweak PCs... not for people who have much interest in Macs.

20 posted on 05/11/2006 5:14:21 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!")
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