Re: A2Central News

[Greg Buchner <apple22@mn.rr.com>]

In article <eeorvn$3pa$1@merope.saaf.se>,
 pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter) wrote:

> In article <20060918190856308+1200@News.Individual.NET>,
> Roger Johnstone  <roger@roger.geek.nz.removethisbit> wrote:
> 
> > In <eej8u4$ogn$1@merope.saaf.se> Paul Schlyter wrote:
> >> In article <1fCdnQicDY7fj5HYnZ2dnUVZ_rWdnZ2d@bresnan.com>,
> >> Terry Olsen <tolsen64@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> >>> He also told me how there weren't any 
> >>> viruses on Macs.
> >> 
> >> ....another salesman's pitch .... less informed customers probably 
> >> believe him....
> >>
> >>> I called him on that 
> >>> one because I know that there have been. See 
> >>> http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/. Then he told me 
> >>> that "all  I have to do is reboot and the virus is rendered useless."  
> >>> That's funny. I  thought there weren't any viruses on Macs,
> > 
> > If you read that page there has been _one_ virus for Mac OS X so far, 
> > and even that has to get into the system via a trojan first. So 
> > technically there aren't viruses on the Mac, just _a_ virus ;o)
> 
> You probably realize yourself that there must have been more than one
> single Mac virus.  This site for instance mention them in the plural
> sense:  http://www.smallblue-greenworld.co.uk/pages/macintosh.html

Of Mac Virii...a couple were proof of concepts done, at least in one 
case, by a maker of Mac anti-virus software.

There hasn't been any Mac OS X viruses (that I know of) that will spread 
by themselves.  They've generally needed user interaction.  Something 
that seems common in the Windows world based on the amount of attacks I 
get in the logs on my G4.

I would guess that more are coming, but I don't think that it's a matter 
of there being less Macs out there.  After all, with 10,000 beta's on 
Windows VISTA out, it had a virus targeted specifically at it already.

I think it mostly boils down to the fact that Windows is a kludge and 
because MS is using code in a manner that it was never intended for 
leaves a lot of unintentional holes.  Mac OS X, starting from a unix 
base and being a smaller OS, is naturally going to have less holes.  
They're still there, but will be harder to find and easier to patch.  
And the only secure computer is one that's locked up and turned off.  
Applies to Mac, Linux, Windows, whatever...

Greg B.

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