03-21-2005, 02:48 PM

http://newsletters.zdnetuk.cneteu.ne...40452/22915/0/

03-21-2005, 02:57 PM

That would be a true statement. If Apple stays on top of the CERT (security) reports that come out and repair/patch the holes, it would be more difficult to create a virus. Trojan horse would be easier, but would not do as much damage unless the person is using the super user account.

03-21-2005, 04:43 PM

according to This, Apple's market share grew only .82% in th US market from q4 2003 to q4 2004, and a little higher interrnationally. while there is a concern there, i hardly believe that there is a need for everyone to go out and get flustered about. like RMAN says, if they stay on top of their stuff, Apple will be ok.

03-21-2005, 05:18 PM

Not that I'm overly concerned, but you have to think, if a succesful virus did target the Mac, it would have a pretty easy time of it. Apple users are allways talking about how immune they are to malware threats and thus almost nobody has virus protection.

Of course this assumes that someone come up with an infection vector that can target Macs specifically instead of just blasting out onto the internet in hopes of infecting someone. That works with windows because you are just bound to find a windows machine with that approach. Macs, making up much less of the market, are just that much harder to infect.

Frankly, I think for the forseeable future there just isn't going to be an effective infection vector that would work with the average Mac computer. Of course specifically targeting servers and the like is a different story.

03-21-2005, 05:49 PM

The challenge, is to get the virus to executed by a privileged account. Hopefully most people will be smart enough not to give permission to an application that request a pass word, if they don't know what it will do.

I received on the average 7 security alerts on various operating systems a day. Most of the alerts are geared toward M$ adn linux.

I am not saying it could not happen, but It will take a very clever person to get the virus to spread, like it does in the windows environment.

The one thing that I can say for sure is, the only safe computer, is the one in the box that has never been turned on.

03-21-2005, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by rman

The one thing that I can say for sure is, the only safe computer, is the one in the box that has never been turned on.

Actually it has been turned on. How would they install OS X b4 shipment.

Just pullin ur leg.

03-22-2005, 05:02 PM

OSX has been around for 4 years now. Say 4% user base should = 4% of the number of MS viruses which would equal several hundred.
So far nil ~ can we say that it's difficult to write Mac viruses that work :-)
As a virus checker is only as good as the last update, I'll get one if there are ever any Mac viruses to check for.
Malware is a different matter ~ just don't install anything that hasn't received a good write up via Version tracker or similar.
P2P / Wares users obviously like living dangerously :-)
Just my $0.02.

03-22-2005, 11:18 PM

Several Mac sites have pointed out that Symantec is behind the report and that coincidentally, the only Mac product that Symantec still develops is Norton's Antivirus. But maybe that's too cynical.