Toolkit

Story: OS X under attack

Posted by: Jason Maddison (Friday 3 March 2006, 2:01 PM)

Professional?? What? You are the biggest idiot on the face of the planet. That has to be the very worst article I've ever read. Anyone who is unemployed needs to apply for this guys job, no experience or intelligence needed, only the ability to use a word processor and talk utter crap!

You've obviously never used a Mac let alone owned one. If you had you'd find that Mac OSX is a Unix based OS with the firewall turned on by DEFAULT. You'll also realise that these viruses were proof of concept, and that the iChat virus could only be transmitted via bonjour. Bonjour allows devices on the same network to talk to one another; it does not facilitate Internet traffic. So the virus never hit the wilds, and can’t be spread across the Internet via iChat.

Apple has already patched the security vulnerabilities; in fact they were patched on the day your article was published.

An article on the education of social engineering attacks would have been a more intelligent way forward, and also advising Mac users to move their main account away from the administrator account that many OSX users use.

Instead you've blown everything out of proportion. No system is immune; I've yet to meet a Mac user who thinks their system is immune. In fact I think you’ll find that Mac users are very security conscious, that’s why they’re using a Mac in the first place. You’ll also find that many Mac users immediately update their software as soon as it is available in order to reduce the risks associated with potential vulnerabilities. You’ll also find Apple are very quick to release security updates, much quicker than Microsoft. You’ll also find that Mac users know that two proofs of concept and an already patched security flaw, is a much safer bet than the thousands of viruses and holes present in Windows.

In answer to your argument that AppleMacs are only secure because they have a much smaller market share, so what! If that is the only reason why they are more secure, woopdy doo! That’s as valid a reason as any to buy a Mac. Would you say ‘I’m not going to move into that nice house in that quiet area of the town because it’s a false sense of security, because the house is only secure because less criminals frequent this part of town’. Of course not, you’re arguments are nescient.

Also I think you'll find that there have been major security issues reported on the potential vulnerability caused by having Symantec's software on your computer. I'm also sure you're aware that a virus has to hit the wild before the virus software vendors can release an update to combat it, so this means that until security vendors can get a patch out there everyone is at risk regardless of system platform. So as and when a real virus threat hits the wild, I think you will find that Mac users will then buy antivirus software, until then there is no point shelling out money on a software that does nothing but protect idiots like you from having a virus passed onto you from a Mac, but obviously that isn’t an issue for you because you are so secure behind your firewall.

Jason