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Whoever said macs were safe
- Thread starter onceabluealwaysablue
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onceabluealwaysablue
Player Valuation: £8m
neonleon
Player Valuation: £35m
16% market share in the US for macs.
Obviously people who buy ridiculously expensive computers (like mac users) and store their credit card details and banking information on there along with all their security details are no interest to the hacking/PC community.
Face it people. The ubiquity of PC's argument is full of holes. Mac's aren't uncrackable but the fact is 16% of the computers in the US are currently sitting with all this juicy information on them with nary a single piece of anti virus software running on them. They are wide open for attack but apparently the hackers couldnt be bothered. Or is it just really really hard to get a virus working on a mac thanks to the way the system is designed.
Talk to a hacker about it. Mac's are really hard to crack. People have been trying for time. Still nothing. Apart from the occasional proof of concept thing that never even makes it into the wild.
You decide. In the meantime I'm not running any anti virus software.
Here's the way I see it.
Mac vs PC.
Mac's have good Operating systems - stable, dead easy to learn, forgiving and to all intents and purpose immune in the real world to viruses. You won't have to fiddle with anti virus software, update virus definitions, turn the software on and off when you are struggling with some other program and wondering if its the anti virus software conflicting etc. They also don't have the kind of third party hardware conflicts you sometimes see with PCs.
On the downside they are stupidly stupidly stupidly expensive. Daylight friggin robbery. They are ok for games but most developers dont bother. And if you want a state of the art gaming machine (and especially if you havent got 10k for the near mac equivalent) get a PC. If you love the nuts and bolts of computing - again a PC is what you want, preferably one you build yourself. If you want something on a budget, or value for money - get a PC.
However if you want a reliable machine (and note I said reliable not infallible - all computers are sh!t as sometimes), one where you pay at the start but it probably buys you time in the long run, and one that even your mum could figure out - get a mac.
Also the argument used to go to get a mac if you were involved in design, animation, video, etc but that is pretty much moot now - they both excel at those tasks.
Obviously people who buy ridiculously expensive computers (like mac users) and store their credit card details and banking information on there along with all their security details are no interest to the hacking/PC community.
Face it people. The ubiquity of PC's argument is full of holes. Mac's aren't uncrackable but the fact is 16% of the computers in the US are currently sitting with all this juicy information on them with nary a single piece of anti virus software running on them. They are wide open for attack but apparently the hackers couldnt be bothered. Or is it just really really hard to get a virus working on a mac thanks to the way the system is designed.
Talk to a hacker about it. Mac's are really hard to crack. People have been trying for time. Still nothing. Apart from the occasional proof of concept thing that never even makes it into the wild.
You decide. In the meantime I'm not running any anti virus software.
Here's the way I see it.
Mac vs PC.
Mac's have good Operating systems - stable, dead easy to learn, forgiving and to all intents and purpose immune in the real world to viruses. You won't have to fiddle with anti virus software, update virus definitions, turn the software on and off when you are struggling with some other program and wondering if its the anti virus software conflicting etc. They also don't have the kind of third party hardware conflicts you sometimes see with PCs.
On the downside they are stupidly stupidly stupidly expensive. Daylight friggin robbery. They are ok for games but most developers dont bother. And if you want a state of the art gaming machine (and especially if you havent got 10k for the near mac equivalent) get a PC. If you love the nuts and bolts of computing - again a PC is what you want, preferably one you build yourself. If you want something on a budget, or value for money - get a PC.
However if you want a reliable machine (and note I said reliable not infallible - all computers are sh!t as sometimes), one where you pay at the start but it probably buys you time in the long run, and one that even your mum could figure out - get a mac.
Also the argument used to go to get a mac if you were involved in design, animation, video, etc but that is pretty much moot now - they both excel at those tasks.
Sorry mate, if I'm a hacker, and given the choice between targetting nine fairly well off people or one very well off person, I'd take the nine.
It's the same reason no game developer made games for the Atari Jaguar - because the Playstation and co. had a larger audience to target.
Security via obscurity in my eyes. There's no doubt it IS a more secure operating system, but it hasn't attracted anywhere near the same amount of attention from the "Hacker Central" countries in Asia.
The Mac barely exists outside the USA, but it's growing.
Here's a "coincidence" - Mac sales in Asia grow by 76% last year, and the first meaningful attack on the Mac occurs at the same time.
It's the same reason no game developer made games for the Atari Jaguar - because the Playstation and co. had a larger audience to target.
Security via obscurity in my eyes. There's no doubt it IS a more secure operating system, but it hasn't attracted anywhere near the same amount of attention from the "Hacker Central" countries in Asia.
The Mac barely exists outside the USA, but it's growing.
Here's a "coincidence" - Mac sales in Asia grow by 76% last year, and the first meaningful attack on the Mac occurs at the same time.
neonleon
Player Valuation: £35m
if theres nine computers with anti virus protection and one with no anti virus software on it though?
This is the reality. Most mac users don't run the stuff. Surely we are a walking target?
The mac proliferation argument tends to grind to a halt here. It doesn't cost billions to come up with a computer virus.
Just the time and dedication of some nerds. If you think tens of thousands haven't already tried to develop a virus for macs then you;d be mistaken. Maybe one day it will happen. But for now its a reality.
Pc's just aren't designed as well as mac's when it comes to security. There's a weight of empirical evidence in your face regardless of the ratio of PC's to mac's.
I've never understood why PC users can't face this. It'd be like me continually insisting that macs are the best at games in the face of all factual evidence.
neonleon
Player Valuation: £35m
Oh and the above case, requires a Mac user to download the software, install it and approve it.
the equivalent of handing the keys to your car to a car thief. It only works because they managed to get the malware up the google ranking so Mac users thought it was legitimate.
the equivalent of handing the keys to your car to a car thief. It only works because they managed to get the malware up the google ranking so Mac users thought it was legitimate.
It just comes down to the fact Asian computer users use PCs, and Asia hack more than anyone by a country mile. They just don't care about the Mac at the moment.
As for anti-virus software, as I said I agree the Mac is generally safer and designed better in terms of preventing "contagious" attacks (in that any attack on a Mac is generally contained and won't affect a network), but it's helped by being completely different to what "traditional hackers" are used to targeting.
For example, as a PC user, I wouldn't know the first things about Macs, despite being very good on a PC in terms of programming and such. Hackers in Asia are just an exaggerated version of me in that respect. Give an Asian hacker a Mac for the first time, and just turning it on would be the first hurdle to get past!
Give it five years with a greater market control in Asia and the Mac will start to leak holes. That isn't a criticism of Apple - it'd happen to absolutely anything that uses the technology a PC and Mac does.
Rook
Player Valuation: £80m
AIDZ is the microsoft vista of diseases. iAIDZ on the other hand is more user friendly and gives a feel of superiority over those commoners afflicted with ordinary average AIDZ.
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