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From: Peter Ceresole on 19 Apr 2010 02:33 Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > So ok then, _you_ tell _us_ why Mac OS X isn't the target of any malware > at the moment? Jim, why are you responding to this sad idiot? I did, but it's no reason for you make the same mistake... -- Peter
From: Jim on 19 Apr 2010 03:29 On 2010-04-19, Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: >> So ok then, _you_ tell _us_ why Mac OS X isn't the target of any malware >> at the moment? And please don't say 'market share' because that's >> horeshit. > > *snigger* > > Sorry, not much input, I just liked horeshit! Heh. Woops. Jim -- Twitter:@GreyAreaUK "[The MP4-12C] will be fitted with all manner of pointlessly shiny buttons that light up and a switch that says 'sport mode' that isn't connected to anything." The Daily Mash.
From: R on 19 Apr 2010 04:32 Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > So ok then, _you_ tell _us_ why Mac OS X isn't the target of any malware > at the moment? And please don't say 'market share' because that's > horeshit. There are millions of Macs connected to broadband out there, > owned by people who, for the most part, have no idea of security. It's an interesting question for which I haven't seen an adequate answer. As you say, the market share ought to be enough. It's enough for people to develop software for OS X, for example. Why would it not be enough for malware authors to make a profit? And I don't think OS X is more secure than Windows. Bear in mind that a lot of malware doesn't need root access to do its nasty work. A keylogger, for example, could get in via a Firefox security hole and run using the privileges of an ordinary user. Further, I don't think we can attribute the lack of attacks on OS X to people liking the operating system. Malware authors are unscrupulous types driven by the profit motive. What they care about is the money. So that's that reason out of the window, too. Here's my highly speculative theory. Most malware is developed in the parts of the world where Macs are very rarely used. Places like Russia, (the) Ukraine, and China. To write malware requires extensive knowledge of the system you are attacking - the sort of knowledge that can't be acquired through occasional use. Moreover, most hackers tend to be fairly young. So they're going to attack the software they know the most about, and that will be the software they grew up using. That software will mainly be, in those countries, Windows.
From: Conor on 19 Apr 2010 04:33 On 19/04/2010 07:01, Jim wrote: > So ok then, _you_ tell _us_ why Mac OS X isn't the target of any malware > at the moment? And please don't say 'market share' because that's > horeshit. Well that's what the articles have stated. There are millions of Macs connected to broadband out there, > owned by people who, for the most part, have no idea of security. > Compromise even a small percentage of them and you'd have a pretty big > botnet. > > Oddly though, that doesn't seem to have happened. > > Why is that? > Because it has: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=692575 -- Conor I'm not prejudiced. I hate everyone equally.
From: Jim on 19 Apr 2010 04:42
On 2010-04-19, Conor <conor(a)gmx.co.uk> wrote: > There are millions of Macs connected to broadband out there, >> owned by people who, for the most part, have no idea of security. >> Compromise even a small percentage of them and you'd have a pretty big >> botnet. >> >> Oddly though, that doesn't seem to have happened. >> >> Why is that? >> > Because it has: > > http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=692575 That didn't result in a compromised Mac. Although I agree it's interesting that a web browser can open apps and that _could_ possibly be used as a vector. It just doesn't seem to have been yet. Oh, I've just looked - that article is a year old. I wouldn't be surprised to find that particular hole has been patched. Jim -- Twitter:@GreyAreaUK "[The MP4-12C] will be fitted with all manner of pointlessly shiny buttons that light up and a switch that says 'sport mode' that isn't connected to anything." The Daily Mash. |