CGTalk - CNN: Mac attacks rare but may rise

EnlightenedPixel

10-23-2006, 03:28 PM

Like we've been saying for years. Once Mac actualy becomes popular, it will become the target of many more attacks, it just takes time for those attacks to evolve into something truely malicious.

Fredl

10-23-2006, 03:34 PM

Quote:
"Mac attacks rare but may rise"
Those viruses may rise at any time. Really they may. It's good that everyone is now warned.

EnlightenedPixel

10-23-2006, 03:36 PM

Hey now, Roberto does an unprecidented job of keeping the news section full of subjects to talk about, he keeps this place in line as much as possible, and so what if its sort of a 'well duh' subject, its nothing to bash him about.

agreenster

10-23-2006, 06:29 PM

"But perhaps a bigger reason for Apple's seemingly safe position is the stability of Mac OS X.Hoopes said Mac OS X is based on the UNIX operating system, which was developed by Bell Labs in the 1960's and at the University of California, Berkeley, through the 1970s. Variants of Unix power most of the servers on the Internet and the system has a reputation for security.

Although experts give Microsoft credit for greatly improving the security of its Windows operating system over the last few years, most still say Apple has the Seattle software giant beat.

"The Mac OS X has a higher security profile," said Ray Wagner, a vice president at Gartner, a technology research firm. "It's not generating anywhere near the same rate of problems, even on a per capita basis."

EricLyman

10-23-2006, 07:57 PM

But perhaps a bigger reason for Apple's seemingly safe position is the stability of Mac OS X.

Not to mention the genie effect. It gives meaning to my workday.

CaptainObvious

10-24-2006, 12:20 AM

HAHAHAHAHAHA! :D :D :D

This is the most inane piece of garbage I've read all day! So, okay, let me get this straight... iPods being infected by a virus that only targets Windows machines indicate that Mac OS X might be at risk? What the hell have they been smoking? Holy hell. Some people shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard, let alone on the internet.

What the heck do they mean by "increasing," anyway? They imply that a problem even exists today. There is, as far as I know, ONE virus for Mac OS X, and it still requires a certain degree of user intervention to run, and the number of reported cases is so extremely low it barely registers. There are probably about a dozen Macs in the world today that are infected by viruses. Maybe less.

Pyke

10-24-2006, 08:37 AM

There are NO guarantee's at all that the MAC will stay 'virus free'. As long as there is software out there, people will find ways to exploit certain aspects of that software to do harm. And all this advertising of MAC's "we are immune to everything" is going to come crashing down when some clever programmer decides to prove them wrong. It will happen. Its just a matter of time.

That said..even tho i'm not the biggest MAC fan..I do wish they would sell PC's in MAC cases... :)

almux

10-24-2006, 08:39 AM

Like we've been saying for years. Once Mac actualy becomes popular, it will become the target of many more attacks, it just takes time for those attacks to evolve into something truely malicious.
No. The obscurity myth is busted since long ago. OSX is not pilled upon and old DOS.
For the iPods... Read well: "- The problem is thought to have originated in the manufacturing process by another company that builds iPods for Apple..."
Means: These guys work on PCs and when they actually load on iPods, they infect them... logical... Though Macusers have nothing to fear about it, it's all .exe...
Can you imagine the number of Hackers who allready tried to become the proud and famous "Hacker of the year" with a succeded attack upon a Mac? Must be thousands... Yet, viruses on Mac: 0.

CaptainObvious

10-24-2006, 09:23 AM

There are NO guarantee's at all that the MAC will stay 'virus free'. As long as there is software out there, people will find ways to exploit certain aspects of that software to do harm. And all this advertising of MAC's "we are immune to everything" is going to come crashing down when some clever programmer decides to prove them wrong. It will happen. Its just a matter of time.
People have been saying that since before OS X was released. That was six years ago. How long are we going to have to wait, anyway?

CaptainObvious

10-24-2006, 09:28 AM

Yet, viruses on Mac: 0.
Actually, there is one. It requires user intervention to install, but once that has happened, it changes executable files it can access and tries to spread itself further (via iChat, I think). It's technically a virus, though it's a crappy one. It's like the common cold of computer viruses, except it's not common.

AmbiDextrose

10-24-2006, 10:31 AM

People have been saying that since before OS X was released. That was six years ago. How long are we going to have to wait, anyway?

At around 5% of the total world-wide personal computer market share, it'll be a while.

thoughtlesswhisper

10-24-2006, 10:47 AM

Are you guys Serious? You think that there are no viruses on macs at all? :thumbsup:

That just shows their hiding them very well. enjoy :)

CaptainObvious

10-24-2006, 10:50 AM

At around 5% of the total world-wide personal computer market share, it'll be a while.
How long a while? We've been waiting half a decade. This is getting silly. For the past fifteen years, people have been talking about how Apple will fail and go bankrupt because of this or that, how the Mac will become useless because of this or that, and so on and so forth. Why is it so fun to be an Apple doomsday profet? Apple are alive and well, and the Mac is still virus free after six years. Meh.

Next up: OMG LINUX WILL TOPPLE TEH MICRO$OFT MONOPOLY!!!111

Are you guys Serious? You think that there are no viruses on macs at all? :thumbsup:

That just shows their hiding them very well. enjoy :)
A viruses that hides itself so well that it doesn't even *do* anything isn't a very good virus...

thoughtlesswhisper

10-24-2006, 10:55 AM

Looks like we have a Mac fanboy here, Took me a while to notice, as i didnt even realise they existed. I spend most of my time battling the evil sony fanboys from planet playstation.

danshewan

10-24-2006, 11:09 AM

Aww man, not again.....

* sigh *

CaptainObvious

10-24-2006, 11:18 AM

Looks like we have a Mac fanboy here, Took me a while to notice, as i didnt even realise they existed. I spend most of my time battling the evil sony fanboys from planet playstation.
The only thing I'm a fanboy of is logic.

thoughtlesswhisper

10-24-2006, 11:36 AM

The only thing I'm a fanboy of is logic.

lol. fair does. thats exactly how i feel.

Azmodan Kijur

10-24-2006, 11:41 AM

CaptainObvious

10-24-2006, 11:50 AM

Logic is rarely a participant of these discussions. I've seen enough of these, both for politics and for hardware / software, to know that the "but but the democrats" and the "But but the MAC" people are never logical in their arguments. Nor are those that attack the item in question (but, but, obsecurity). It's like watching two grown men fight over the color of a rose or whether Apples are superior to Oranges or not. It's mindless and it's meaningless.

Both OS's do their job. Both have different cultures and philosophy and both serves slightly different needs. Honestly, what's next for the petty argument department? Star Destroyers versus Sovereign Class Starships?
You're missing the point. I'm not arguing that Mac OS X is superior. I am arguing that it is downright idiotic to claim that the fact that a Windows-only virus existing on certain iPods (really few iPods, at that) means that the risk of viruses for Macs is increasing, which CNN seems to think.

Don't assume I am an Apple fanboy just because I have nothing but contempt for tech journalists who couldn't tell the difference between an OS and their ass.

ntmonkey

10-24-2006, 12:22 PM

Looks like we have a Mac fanboy here, Took me a while to notice, as i didnt even realise they existed. I spend most of my time battling the evil sony fanboys from planet playstation.

Hey now! I make a living off those said fanboys. You leave them alone!! :D

-Lu

thoughtlesswhisper

10-24-2006, 12:32 PM

Hey now! I make a living off those said fanboys. You leave them alone!! :D

-Lu

So it was YOU! for shame, for shame....

:p

rakmaya

10-24-2006, 02:56 PM

LOL some people here have no clue how to write a virus or what some viris writers look for. And you guys talk like you know everything and the future.

The reason most virus are for windows is because the current generation of virus writers look for the most number of victims. Previously, the really old ones was mainly due to the "Windows Haters" but now it is not the case.

And for information, it is easier to write a simple virus for Linux than any other system. But it is also the hardest to make an effective virus for even a decent secured Linux system without worrying about traces. For Windows and Mac both are relatevely tough. Windows is due to its recent security chagnes and Mac due to the fact that it is not available to most virus writers yet. From their point of view, they don't want to buy of serach for a internet cafe to write some thing that they haven't fully learned yet. As the Mac becomes more and more affordable and common, you will see the same number of hits as Windows. That is guaranteed. I don't need an analyst to tell me that.

RuinedMessiah

10-24-2006, 03:04 PM

These topics always degenerate in a Mac versus PC war. So allow me to throw in my two cents.

I like building PCs. Period. There is always something tangible and beautiful about the first boot of a custom PC. To my knowledge, Apple doesn't offer this. Thus, for my desktop needs, I prefer the PC mainly because I get the control behind just what the system is. Now, having said that, the Mac OS has me interested (if I can get past the whole "We're Mac users and everyone else sucks" elitists subculture they have going on) and I've been looking for a laptop for a while. The main thing holding me back is the fact that a platform that is soo graphics based has yet to realize that a Tablet style Mactop would rock. So I'm officially giving them two years to get on top of that. If not, then I guess I'm sticking with PC.

Buzzoff

10-24-2006, 04:26 PM

Hey now, Roberto does an unprecidented job of keeping the news section full of subjects to talk about.

And with stealing this news from another news site he posts flamebait.

RuinedMessiah

10-24-2006, 04:31 PM

And with stealing this news from another news site he posts flamebait.

Any news will be flamebait, period. Someone will always find a way to insult it.

EnlightenedPixel

10-24-2006, 04:38 PM

And with stealing this news from another news site he posts flamebait.

He posts links and partial headlines from other sites in order to get us to go there to read the full story and somehow he's stealing? If anything, he may be endangering smaller sites Bandwidth, but thats about it. he's not pulling a Bauman and jacking peoples works and putting "HostedByCGTALK" on the front.
Im sick of people bashing the guy for posting both pro and con threads on various hardware and software companies.

Attacking him for posting a thread would qualify as flame bait.

RobertoOrtiz

10-24-2006, 05:19 PM

Wow...

For the record, Buzzoff if you have any problem or objections with
me, my post or or how I mod this section please drop me a line, and/or complain to the Ballistic folks.

You are in your rights to do so.

But keep in mind that I am only one of the many mods in this news section, and I am human, as I am constantly reminded.

Having said that lets keep the comments to the topic at hand.

The MAC is becoming significant player in the highend 3d market,
no small part to the mac intels. The fact that Virus writers are now making efforts to attack it makes it newsworthy to our community.

-R