Posted on 07/06/2006 10:34:55 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Rockets bursting in air, fireworks everywhere! Thank you for helping mark the 200,000th entry into the VirusScan malware (malevolent software) detection database.
But truly, this is not a moment to celebrate. For, larger and larger numbers of malware is a plague, not a cause to celebrate. Instead, we mark this moment simply as a milestone in our continual trip to fend off the bad stuff from everyone’s machines.
It is alarming that we reach this milestone so soon after September 2004 when the count reached 100,000. Eighteen years to reach 100,000. Less than two years to double. Looking ahead, our researchers expect yet another doubling in a similar timeframe. So, 100,000 new threats in the past two years, 200,000 new threats to come in the next two years!
Malware Count and Rate of Growth
The last two years have marked a tremendous increase in downloaders and bots, malware that has as its purpose to commandeer the target machine, to be used by the Command and Control machine. Or rather, the person sitting behind that machine, who has as his motive, $$$$$$$.
In early 2004, a number of viruses like Netsky, Bagle, and Mydoom would infect multiple millions of machines with each release of a new variant. Many millions of machines would be compromised in a short amount of time causing great financial strife and immediate reaction from IT personnel as well as law enforcement. Soon, Sven Jaschan was arrested for the creation of the Netsky and Sasser families of viruses. At about the same time, the author of Gaobot/Agobot and Phatbot was also arrested. With these two events, we all hoped the arrests would stem the tide on malware.
Instead, malware distribution changed dramatically. In the first half of 2004, 31 virus outbreaks were rated Medium and above. The second half of 2004 saw 17 more. That number fell to 12 for the whole of 2005. And in 2006, there have been no outbreaks of similar severity! Instead of huge virus events causing ire from all segments including law enforcement, the preferred method of malware distribution now involves the creation of many minor variants sent through controlled spam efforts. Good family detection becomes crucial for a less worrisome experience on the Internet.
Another area of concern is the growth of malware targeting mobile telephony. The numbers are still small, only near 300. As a result, rates of growth are exaggerated. However, it will grow. The worry, as our past experience would show with other forms of malware, the growth will fashion similarly to the above graph. Except, time will be compressed. We are still in the era where malware targeting telephony is not yet purposefully stealing money. And that is the concern. When the phone becomes the standard means to transfer money, malware targeting telephony will truly explode, much as bots and other means to steal money over the Internet have consumed our energies these past two years.
And so, on this July 4th, our thanks to the men and women who serve, so we can all enjoy our liberties and pursue happiness. And thanks also to the cadre of dedicated anti-malware researchers who on this day added that 200,000th malware detection entry, so we may pursue our enjoyment of the Internet experience with a little less worry.
Until you piped up, there hasn't been a single mention of the Mac in the article or on this thread.
This could just as easily have been posted by a Linux advocate.
Projecting again, are we?
It is YOU that is somehow reading something into this article that simply IS NOT THERE. This is a legitimate article from an expert source, McAfee, on WINDOWS viruses. The only way "mac" appears in this article is as part of the word "machine." The first mention of Apple is in your ad hominem reply... the second is in the first sentence of my response to you.
Did I Ping the Mac Ping list on this even though I maintain the Mac Ping list on FreeRepublic? No.
The fact that I do manage the Mac Ping list is why my name appears in many Mac pings. I also post articles that are of interest to the many Mac using Freepers.
You have no idea how long I have been in the computer business... suffice it to say that when I took Computer Science in college, Lyndon Johnson was still President of the United States.
Since YOU read into this some reference to the fact that Macs are not susceptible to even one of the 200,000 malware, then perhaps it is you that is feeling some dismay at what might happen to your computer. Are you so sensitive to the dismal situation vis-a-vis Windows malware that this article has offended you in some way?
The fact is that I make my living cleaning up the messes that can happen to Windows based PCs... my experience is that there is a better way.
Thank you for your concern for my life, politicket.
Now that you have expressed it, don't bother.
I am still curious why you are so offended at this article. I didn't write it. A computer security expert at McAfees wrote it.
It marks a milestone in modern computing.
Only you seem to take it personally. Get over it. Load the latest Spyware update or something. Enjoy your PC.
Your = You're
You do realize that I'm posting this on a Dell running Linspire, right?
I do have Macs, but many of my clients are migrating away from Windows to a "Best Of Breed" solution that will actually reduce their IT support costs while leveraging their existing hardware investment - Linspire is one such solution.
FYI - it was at my clients' request, too. This just illustrates the problems with Windows.
Please provide an example of an attack on "various brands of computers" or "operating systems" that I have made. I suspect they will be more in YOUR eye than in actual fact. You are certainly inferring something from this article that I did not imply.
The fact is, politicket, that I have recommended Windows PCs for my clients... have built networks for them using Windows products and provided technical support for them. I have also listened to them complain about the problems they have.
Have I suggested Apple products? Yes... when there was an appropriate Mac solution to what they needed to do.
When clients HAVE gone the Mac way, I have found that my billing to those clients has dropped by 80-90% because they don't have as many support issues that require tech support. The vast majority of my income is derived from servicing clients using Windows products. I have clients who also use Linux... I don't see them as much either.
On the other hand, since the releae of WindowsXP Service Pack 2, the number of service issues and calls from my Windows using clients has dropped dramatically. Once I have their machines and networks set up properly, malware is much less of an issue than it was before... so long as the users don't do something stupid.
Now, answer these questions... "How much time have you spent learning and using an OS X Macintosh?"
"When did you last recommend a Macintosh as the "Best of Breed" solution to a problem?"
That being said and asked, politicket, this thread is about the article that started it... the one about McAfee's list of malware topping 200,000. It is NOT about Macs or Apple or any of their products. It is YOU who have attempted to hijack the discussion to something not even in the thread. Except for the answers to my two questions, I will not respond to any further Mac discussion or calumny from you.
You may not realize this because of your apparent anti-Mac bias, but it has been pointed out that you're the aggressor on this thread.
You're the Anti-Mac Evangelist, or one of them at least.
This is an informative article with facts. If Swordmaker had edited the headline to include "Microsoft SUCKS! Apple ROCKS!" then maybe you'd have a point. As it is, you don't have a point, and you don't have a defense for your horrible, rude behavior.
Lay off Swordmaker, and keep your Mac bashing to relevant threads and backup your arguments with facts that support your negative opinions about the platform. Attacking Swordmaker and other Mac users on FR, however, is pointless. Doing so on a Microsoft thread where there isn't even any Mac interest or content is even more so... It qualifies as inane.
Well, without your rude comments - I would've just read the article and moved on.
You're like a Palestinian firing rockets at Israel. You have no good reason except hate, and you don't like it when people tell you to stop, and dislike it even more when people actually tell you off.
Go terrorize a PETA thread.
We're touchy because we don't like being attacked, especially when we're not promoting Apple?
Come on... You can't be that disingenuous...
You insult Swordmaker, and then act like we are the problem when you get responses to your rude behavior.
Do you have no sense of responsibility for your actions?
Thank you for your answer to the questions... but, in reference to your "not having bothered with OS X", OS X has been available for seven years in the server form and almost six in the desktop version so I put it to you that YOU do not know modern Macs. May I suggest you spend some time at it? You might be surprised.
You are clearly an Apple evangelist. There is nothing wrong with that, but at least admit it.
What, you want me to announce in every thing I post that "I am an Apple evangelist"? I post many things... I maintain a couple of other Ping lists on FreeRepublic... one of them happens to be the Mac Ping list. It currently has 199 Freepers as members. They are interested in things about Macs. Seldom will you find me posting PRO-Mac comments in a Windows or Linux thread unless it is in response to erroneous information or FUD attacks on Macs.
I posted this article because I found it interesting... and surprising. I thought it would be of interest to the general population of FreeRepublic who are, by proved by the very fact they are here, computer users. I had no other motive than that. I also posted the first article on FR about the Beta release of FR... without commentary... so that Freepers who were interested could DL it and try it out. I have also defended Windows when ill-informed Mac users make false claims about its vulnerability... the most recent when I pointed out that even the MSM and much of the Tech Press were mis-interpreting Microsoft's study of Malware when they falsely reported that 59% of Windows installations were infected.
Sheesh, it is getting too late to be up...
Malware writers are not going to write code for niche markets, and that's all it is.
Windows IS bloatware, written by huge numbers of cubicle dwellers and cobbed together, and can be intrinsically easier to find holes in as a result, but if there were a serious financial motive, and everyone were running Linux or any of the Mac flavors, then malicious code can be or has been written for it regardless. And let's not forget that Linux has also been written by many people and made to work, as well, and is rooted from time to time just for fun..there is certainly no profit in it yet.
Nobody writes malware for something few people run, for the same reason no one steals hubcaps that fit a Citroen.
Here is what the PEOPLE run when accessing a general-interest website, and how much of each, right off my July webstats.
2193 24.91% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET
2 969 11.01% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)
3 632 7.18% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) G
4 403 4.58% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; InfoP
5 394 4.48% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98)
6 376 4.27% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
7 211 2.40% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1
8 208 2.36% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; Media
9 188 2.14% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Ge
10 162 1.84% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; SpamB
11 161 1.83% Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)
12 139 1.58% Mozilla/3.01 (compatible;)
13 126 1.43% Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/418.
14 123 1.40% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gec
15 113 1.28% Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko
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