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"Experts" Say Macs Are Not Safer Than PCs
MoneyT writes "As reported at vnunet, experts are claiming that Macs are no safer than PCs in terms of protection from a virus. Seems more to me like they're just saying that we Mac users aren't invulnerable, but until I see things like nimda taking out my Mac, I'll stick with the iBook." The article doesn't mention that the "7,000 macro viruses" attack Microsoft products (leaving uses of a Mac only as a web server completely protected from them), nor does it quote any statistics about how many Mac vs. Windows viruses exist, and it doesn't address the real-
world fact that Macs are hit with viruses far less often than Windows machines.
Was this commentary done with OS/X, or earlier versions? I would expect OS/X to be considerably more resistant, given a true multi-user base, where the default userid is not 'admin'.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I've been using MacOS 9.x and OSX for the last 4 years quite extensively. Browsing the web, downloading binaries, etc, etc, etc. In all that time, I've not been hit once by a virus that I can tell. I've consistently run Norton Antivirus, and it's never reported a damaged, infected, or otherwise bogus file. However, I've seen pc's in my office drop like flies. (Fortunately, I rarely need to use the immunocompromised little beasties, and when I do, I'm meticulous about my virus checking. I also don't run Outlook, EVER.)
Given the stress by Apple to move people to OS X and it's BSD underpinnings, it's obviously scary to Symantec, MacAffee, etc. that they might lose their chunk of money. Think about it, who ever heard of a virus checker for any *nix?
Find me a non-corporate virus hunter that will make the same claim and I'll buy it. Otherwise FUD.
The article doesn't mention that the "7,000 macro viruses" attack Microsoft products (leaving uses of a Mac only as a web server completely protected from them)
Irrelevant: Ok, sure. If I run a web-server only (Windows) PC with Apache the daemon, I'm invulnerable, too. What does that have to do with Mac vs. PC. That's just a matter of software (which happens to be cross-platform). If you don't run Microsoft client software, you are protected.
nor does it quote any statistics about how many Mac vs. Windows viruses exist, and it doesn't address the real- world fact that Macs are hit with viruses far less often than Windows machines.
This one's a little more reasonable, but really, let's look at this article. It clearly is implying that the Mac, as a platform, is theorectically prone to virus attacks, like any system. Now, as long as it has only marginal market share it won't be a target, and won't have as many viruses, but that won't last long if everybody switches to it for that reason.
Mac vs. PC vs. Alpha vs. whatever is just not the place to be talking about security. Security, as of this moment, is not really a part of the hardware-layer of systems. If you want to talk about security, you need to talk about applications - like those made by microsoft - but those applications are becoming more and more cross-platform...
-Andrew
Macs are not inherently safer than PCs, however, Apple has a MUCH better track record when it comes to writing secure code than Microsoft does...
I think the first Mac OS X virus we will see will be an Apache exploit [good luck, guys].
-braxton
The fact that all Operating Systems are subject to virus attacks cannot be argued, but some are more secure than others. There are three requirements for a virus to damage a user's machine. First, the user must acquire the virus (download, email attachement, etc). Second, the user must execute the infected application (thinking it's something else). Three, the user must have permission to modify/edit/delete the resources that the virus intends to attack.
Seriously, we hear the argument time and time again that Mac and Linux are less succeptable to Viruses than Windows, but what they really mean is point three from above: OS X and Linux to a better job of protecting system resources than Windows. So yes, Windows is more succeptable to catastrophic damage than OS X and Linux.
What really goes without saying here is that viruses follow the same pattern as useful software: 90+ percent of the population uses Windows, so target that population and you will see the most damage (or revenue for real software).
No one should really think that they are not Vulnerable to viri simply because they run a more secure OS. While a OS X or Linux virus executed by a local user with limited privledges cannot necessarily damage the system, they could still delete all of that user's personal data because that user has full permission on their stuff. I don't know about any of you, but if a virus wiped out my entire home directory, I'd be pretty pissed, and the fact that my system still booted up would be no consolation. =)
My point here is just that anyone who runs foreign applications on their machine from a user account that has write permissions on their own files is succeptable to a virus attack.
As long as Windows enjoys the overwhelming majority share of desktop operating systems, it will be the target of the majority of virus attacks. If that balance shifts towards the Mac, don't doubt that the virus writers won't prey on Mac users as well.