08-22-2008, 07:58 AM

If a lot of people are switching over to Mac, doesn't that mean there will be more viruses and worms?

08-22-2008, 08:05 AM

Yep, I can see that.

08-22-2008, 08:14 AM

Does Mac do better with preventing viruses and worms because so few are written for Macs, or because they have a better way of dealing with it?

08-22-2008, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by AbbyBee

Does Mac do better with preventing viruses and worms because so few are written for Macs, or because they have a better way of dealing with it?

The answer to that question is both... But the sad fact is that as more switch over to the Mac and OS X at some point more people will start trying to find ways around the operating system and some day we may well have just as much problem as the pc users do now.

08-22-2008, 08:22 AM

I'd say it's because Apple's market share is still relatively low. If Apple took over the world tomorrow and Windows only had a small market share, you'd see a major role reversal. Trust me, I know a couple of guys who have shown me how easily they can break into a Mac, they have heavy Unix backgrounds and know they're way around a LOT of security features. I guy I work with cracked my Mac on a VPN router here at work in 10 minutes flat, he has a Masters degree in Computer Science, he used to use SPARC stations all day long in college. He also had a demo of NeXt machine at his college he told me, pretty cool little bit of history.

08-22-2008, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by James

The answer to that question is both... But the sad fact is that as more switch over to the Mac and OS X at some point more people will start trying to find ways around the operating system and some day we may well have just as much problem as the pc users do now.

How far down the road do you see this happening? Do you think Mac has a good plan for this?

08-22-2008, 11:20 AM

In 15 years of internet connection I've never once had a virus, even on windows machines. I'd say most of your chances of getting a worm or a virus is all about personal habits online. Other than that, when I see an OS X security report there's a fix very shortly afterward.

08-22-2008, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by AbbyBee

How far down the road do you see this happening? Do you think Mac has a good plan for this?

That is really hard to say. I am no expert by any means and i have no knowledge of the inner workings at Apple and what their plans may be. I figure it will probably be a few years anyway down the road, depending how how fast Mac growth is.

At this time there just aren't the numbers to really make it worth the effort, and i don't think that Apple has the "I hate Apple" numbers that Microsoft does. But things change every day and some day they might have, if not the lead, then at least enough to make it worth the effort. After all why write a virus that effects 5 million people when you can write one that effects 25 million.

08-22-2008, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by Dysfunction

In 15 years of internet connection I've never once had a virus, even on windows machines. I'd say most of your chances of getting a worm or a virus is all about personal habits online. Other than that, when I see an OS X security report there's a fix very shortly afterward.

I would have to agree.

college = poor = stole things = viruses
all grown up = job = buy things = not a virus since

I cannot believe how some people can manage to blow up their PC's hours after they get them.

08-22-2008, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by mdfuller

I cannot believe how some people can manage to blow up their PC's hours after they get them.

I can. People expect their computer to be just like a household appliance - toss out the manual and just use it. That will only get you by for so long. There was a time that when you bought a computer, you did so not just for the content it could provide you, but also because you enjoyed the computer itself. Those times are gone now.

Those of us who invest the time to actually learn how the nuts and bolts work and take a genuine interest in the OS, other than as a means to an end, will always be less prone to things like viruses - which are most commonly distributed by social engineering techniques (be it on Windows or Mac OS).

What's scary about Windows is the number of holes that are exploited on it. This is how worms attack a system - typical viruses infect a system by ignorance on the user's part (opening an email, inserting an infected disc, downloading an infected file, etc). Worms are completely different as they exploit fundamental flaws in the OS - the user needs to do nothing other than be on the wrong network, at the wrong time.

As always, knowledge is power.

08-22-2008, 12:52 PM

Or the wrong website. It becomes humorous when you can identify the 'surfing habits' of someone by the worms they get.

08-22-2008, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by Dysfunction

Or the wrong website. It becomes humorous when you can identify the 'surfing habits' of someone by the worms they get.

Yep, that's true too - forgot about that one.

Either way, I suspect Mac OS will be less susceptible in the long run to things like viruses, if only by virtue of the fact that the core OS is fairly well protected. In the Windows world, up until Vista, every user was basically root. At least on Mac OS, the user can only really manipulate the system within the context of their home folder without escalating permissions (and that should be a fairly obvious sign to the user that something isn't right if they're just randomly prompted for credentials). But once again, ignorance plays a role here. If you get into the habit of just entering your password anytime you're prompted for it, you're likely going to do some damage at some point.

08-22-2008, 01:22 PM

The fact that viruses were so common on PCs is one of the reasons I switched to Macs like 6 years ago. As time goes on I'm sure people will find a way to infect Macs and get through whatever security measures Apple has taken, but I'm just as confident in Apple that they will do what they can to prevent this and if you follow the rules and don't surf like a nincompoop you should be fine. I could be totally wrong though and be hit with a tidal wave of viruses in the months and years to come. But who knows? I <3 Apple

08-22-2008, 01:40 PM

I've owned Windows machines since 1996, and between McAfee and Norton, they never got infected. But one of my reasons for going back to Mac is that the cure/prevention was getting worse than the disease: Norton Internet Security put a huge drag on performance.

08-22-2008, 01:43 PM

So, since I'm not downloading porn or music/video files I should be fine, even if in the future OS X starts to be targeted as well. I can avoid viruses and worms on a Mac the same way I've been avoiding them on my PC.

I'm not exactly a computer techie, but I have always been interested in how and why something works the way it does. Will someone explain to me how Windows has left itself more exposed to viruses/worms than OS X has? In layman's terms.