Conspiracy Theory

In recent time's there have been many windows based viruses and worms making their way to PC users. Some of which have cause chaos for companies and some huge corporations. Many anti-virus manufactures have started to encourage users to install anti-virus software on their systems, hence buying their software for the secure feeling... but as worms and viruses advance those applications will become little use if end users fail to update the patches.

Wonder has anyone ever thought of this...
Could it be that those worms and viruses have been written by non-window users because they want to seek revenge for something... maybe some was sacked from microsoft... or maybe to encourage users to change platforms, at least in terms of software from ms windows to free linux. Also could those virus be written by former PC users that have recently switched to Mac's for the same reason?

Word for Mac users:
Why do we as a mac user have to waste OUR hard-drive space to install useless anti-virus applications that are there not to protect us, but the vas amounts of PC users our in the world.

Call me selfish, but I'm online all the time, like 24/7 and not a single virus has yet to land on my door and if they have, they must of been designated for the WinTel platform not mine.

In the last few weeks, there have been various emails with attachments sizing to 29.8k or something... inside there contains a .exe file. If you happen to be a PC user, then one must be a complete idiot to execute the file... personally if this file attaches itself to an out going email, so be it, because i don't care.

Why should i waste 10-20Mb of hard-drive space for someone else? More importantly, why should i waste £50-100 pounds on useless software? I think we Mac user should get free software to protect our PC users and maybe a Hard drive to install all that rubbish on...

Comments?

I also have some conspiracy theory:
For those of you that work on Windows PCs(I do, but only at work), I guess you already noticed that Anti-Virus patches are out nearly as fast as new Viruses. Some might say now "Oh, well, they do a very good job!" but I'm more and more convinced that the biggest part of the outcoming viruses comes directly from the Anti-Virus software companies...

I mean, let's face it, with the vulnerability of Windows, there's a huge market, and won't that be a good way to ensure a steady money flow?

Virus products for Macs not only watch for viruses, but security holes in OS X as well. And 10-20 megs is really nothing on big hard drives.

1. 10-20 mb of space on a 160 gig drive... means nothing to me.... i currently have 20 dvd's on my computer... at 4.4 gigs a piece...if i wanna free up room, i delete a dvd...

2. im a pc user and mac user... and ive never once owned an antivirus program... i use a thing called common sense and a router... blocks me from the majority of script kiddies who try to "hack" and i dont click on things that say "Click me!".... i rarely ever get viruses, and if i do, i have everything backed up anyway, i would just format. (ive never had a virus on my pc that has done anything to the point that it was noticeable)

3. no conspiricy. if you were an anti-social human being, mad at the world, and had the ability to create the flu to infect hundreds of thousands of people, make their lives **** for a few days, make them miss work due to throwing up etc., you would make sure that your flu infects the majority of people in order to spread successfully. say i invented a strain of the flu... but my flu only infected blonde haired, blue eyed, females over 6 feet tall... how fast would that get around the world? not very...lol...so if you were a malicious little kid with the ability to write a program that would affect the world, and enough to get it in the news, you would write it for windows, the obvious choice because it makes up the mass majority of computers in the world.

half the reason people write viruses is for the thrill of making something so big that the world has to respond to it... how amazing is that..at your fingertips you have the government of every country, the leaders of every industry, and millions of people around the world fearing for their data.

anyway....i doubt there is any conspiricy... and antivirus companies make enough money off paranoid people...they dont need to be a catalyst to their own fortune.

I've never paid for an antivirus program in my life.

I have norton systemworks and firewall but systemworks has some awesome maintenance tools. I've never gotten a virus that wasn't my own fault(when i got my first pc)
I do get a lot of backdoor trojan attacks, though. Norton blocks the straight away.

Are macs susceptible to backdoor trojans? If so, what can they do?

If there is any conspiracy at all, I'd agree with Avalon. They probably leak the vulnerabilities to ensure business. Then after it makes the news, they release the patch and save the day. Ahh.. commerce. lol

Nothing can run on a mac without your permission... trogens could exist but just about everything that installs needs your password. So, go figure and tell me you still need a anti-virus application on your system. If your ever worried, you can check the console log files, there are breadcrumbs for everything on your system and who or what installed them.

for Zero... I think, if there are security holes on the OS then a third party won't be producing any patches for it, it'll come from Apple. Themselves. There's nobody out there in the Mac community that will know the OS better than those great folks in Cupertino. Even the ADC developers don't know everything, they only know their specialized field, ie. multimedia, gui, system, finder ect.

Avalon said:

I also have some conspiracy theory:
For those of you that work on Windows PCs(I do, but only at work), I guess you already noticed that Anti-Virus patches are out nearly as fast as new Viruses.

Click to expand...

your are wrong.. they come out like once every 2-3 days !

I said NEARLY as fast...that doesn't mean on the same day. But it rarely takes more than one day for a removal tool, followed by a patch 2 or 3 days later.
I am a system administrator, and I lost lots of my time at the company I worked before removing viruses and patching Windows. And that because our IT director did not want Linux servers, the whole system was running Windows, including the servers.
The company I work for now uses Linux servers, and no PC can go on the Internet, without passing through Linux first. And we very rarely have Virus troubles, and when we do, it's because of some stupid employee double-clicking on a mail attachment, even without knowing the sender. But since we have attachment filters, that belongs to the past too... ;-)

BTW, I didn't say I believe in this conspiracy, it was just a theory...but it wouldn't really surprise me.

For all you folks that adore your PC's, if you must play, then play safe.

(can't be many, afterall this is a Mac-forums. Unless some trojon creaped into my system snd changed the url's.)

Gibson Research Corporation
I'm sure most PC divas will be know about gibsons... well with those utilities you could effectively XPdite your system, UnPlug n' Pray and block ya whose's! And there are many, so many that the DOD are on their case!

For the Mac users: Sorry, you may forget this link, i doubt there be any utilities or warez that will be of any uses to you.