Macs never get viruses

[vanman]

Macs never get viruses
ha ok!

Analysts at Sophos say that they have discovered a stealth patch to Apple's anti-malware software

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2265058/...alth-patch-fix

[Stuart]

They do get viruses, but fewer Mac viruses exist than PC viruses.

As for the "stealth patch", tbh, it looks like nothing more than a definition update. No different to what Sophos themselves do regularly.

[vanman]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

They do get viruses, but fewer Mac viruses exist than PC viruses.

As for the "stealth patch", tbh, it looks like nothing more than a definition update. No different to what Sophos themselves do regularly.

Apple adds stealth patch to fix Trojan vulnerabilityAfter

analysing the patch the researchers found an update to the XProtect.plist file in OSX, which includes malware signatures, which will block the HellRTS trojan first seen in the wild in April. The Trojan masquerades as iPhoto but gives an attacker control the infected system, allowing it to be used to send spam and take part in distributed denial of service attacks.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by vanman

Apple adds stealth patch to fix Trojan vulnerabilityAfter

They say it is a stealth patch, but if Apple are doing that, it is nothing more than a definition update. Remember, Sophos has an antivirus product for the Mac, so it's in their interest to call into question anything Apple may be doing to protect against threats.

What I find surprising is that they put the fact that apple did this as a headline, and at the front of the story, while burying the fact that Apple employees are giving incorrect advice on security right at the end of the article (which is far more dangerous),

[samantha666]

my mac address keeps going down i need mac addresses to try

[Russ]

Originally Posted by samantha666

my mac address keeps going down i need mac addresses to try

This is not the kind of website to get MAC addresses from.

[the-cable-guy]

Originally Posted by samantha666

my mac address keeps going down i need mac addresses to try

nice he saw the word MAC in the title & got all excited lol

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by samantha666

my mac address keeps going down i need mac addresses to try

No... You need to pay for your subscription...

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by vanman

Macs never get viruses
ha ok!

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2265058/...alth-patch-fix

Sorry but only a fool thinks that an OS is safe. Windows virii get more news simply as windows has millions and millions (if not billions) of users hence the virii writers will target it. If MACOS was as poupuler (or for that matter *NIX) then they'd have just as much virii.

But "Mac OS is just as vulnerable as Windoze" is equally baseless as claiming Mac OS is "safe".

The fact is, there are far, far fewer known pieces of malware in the wild that target Mac OSX. Mac fans postulate that this is because the OS architecture is fundamentally more secure than Windows; others postulate that Mac users are naive and benefiting from nothing more than the security of obscurity. Which is true? Who knows? There may well be insufficient evidence to claim OSX is more secure than Windows, but then again there is also insufficient evidence to claim that OSX is equally as insecure and would suffer equally with Windows if it were as popular.

[Kymmy]

Only popularity will tell

If MACOS was 100% clear of virii then I would state it was more secure, but it's not

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Only popularity will tell

If MACOS was 100% clear of virii then I would state it was more secure, but it's not

Macs are more secure, the fact that their has never been a successful outbreak of a virus is not simply because it's obscure. After all there would be quite a lot of pride for someone who achieved it.

An operating system can be protected against viruses. Windows 7 and Vista are both less susceptible to malicious code because of features like UAC. Mac has good security settings out of the box which XP didn't have and thus earned itself a reputation even though recent versions of Windows are much better.

Security though Obscurity helps but it certainly is not the only reasons Macs don't get viruses.

[Enigma776]

Thats about to change now that steam is on the Mac platform, the world and their wife will knockup keylogers and trojans just to get account details.

[xpod]

Not so much about Mac viruses specifically but some of you might find this recent article about viruses in general, and the myths surrounding them an interesting read. Theres a little bit of Mac love in there.

We hear the same security by obscurity argument with LInux when it comes to viruses etc but Desktops asides, when you take into account all the webservers and embedded devices Linux runs upon it`s not quite that obscure after all.
Bad administration & social engineering are probably the biggest threats to Mac/Linux users(webservers included) and you only have to spend a little time on any Linux forums security board to see all the "i`ve been hacked" threads.....i cant really comment on Mac forums security boards of course.

[rwalker]

Originally Posted by Enigma776

Thats about to change now that steam is on the Mac platform, the world and their wife will knockup keylogers and trojans just to get account details.

Right, because I'm sure hackers are interested in stealing Steam accounts. It's not like they'd favour credit card information or maybe personal emails.

Like Xpod said, it's not so much an obscurity issue as it is the fact that OSX is more secure than Windows, or at least more secure than previous versions of Windows. Windows 7 is pretty safe, but it's certainly not the only OS hackers would go after; with the amount of servers running Linux, it's certainly worth the effort if a hacker can crack one and access personal information.