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Want Security? Make The Switch
Lord_Slepnir writes "Security firm Sophos Security has released a report claiming that Macs will be more secure than Windows for some time to come. The report listed the 10 most common kinds of malware, and noted that they can only infect Windows systems."
Anyone who is in "the industry" knows this. They just like to say the things people like to hear though...
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
On a Mac you actually have to confirm that you intend to run a new app the first time that you run one. The basic idea is to make one more click for these instances. It's not perfect, but it is more secure than not having it.
Not completely true.
You don't need admin privileges to screw a users account and do "useful" things. Point of example - MyDoom.A didn't need Administrative privileges for anything it did.
They're also easy to perceive as being "user friendly", stylish (if aesthetics matter to you), very versatile, and over-all are just more "welcoming" to those people who don't know a lot about computing in general and easily anthropomorph their PC's into something that "hates them" every time a program suffers from buggy construction.
My parents and an Aunt just bought themselves new computers - Dad got a 20" iMac, Mum got a 17" MacBook Pro (not a single problem with heat or "moo" yet), and Aunt picked a 13" MacBook (she hasn't said anything about problems yet either) - based on my recommendations and their experiences with Windows installs degrading overtime - seriously, barely touched PCs and Windows had to be re-installed at least once every six months, even with anti-spyware/virus and firewall software and hardware.
They bought them with a three-user licence of Windows XP as well - for those few programs that they use that aren't on Mac OS X - and are now quite happy doing a lot more on their computers, and watching a lot less television, than they were before.
Most of the time they're booted up into Mac OS X. Sometimes my Aunt uses Windows for when she's working on Family Tree's, and once Mum installed Mac:Office she stopped using MSN on Windows so it's already been left alone after two days. Dad doesn't know why he's got Windows, it just seemed like a good idea to him, and I'm getting him off of it slowly because seriously, he doesn't use his computer for anything that he can't do in Mac OS X; when he does need Windows though, it'll be there on another partition waiting to be used.
Macs are the best computer for the general consumer to buy today, whether it be a Mini, an iMac, or a MacBook (Pro or "Regular"), simply because the core OS that comes on them provides a good place for a "noob" to learn about the web, email, writing letters, making movies, playing with photography, simple programming, etc... and because of Mac OS X's overall design and default configuration (very important because no "noob" is going to first secure their PC when they unpack it) it is a secure place to play.
With the change to Intel CPU's they become even more useful across the broad spectrum of people using computers because suddenly that program that you had to use for work and couldn't change for something else cheaper or OSS can now be run on Windows... natively on a Mac; allowing you to "cool off" from Windows once in a while by rebooting and firing up iPhoto or iMovie, potter around with that masterpiece you're gonna release one day to rival The Big Lebowski, and then reboot and get back to work.
There was virtualisation software before but now Parallels and the Intel CPU switch has made Windows in Mac OS X even more practical, and now Windows can be run while enjoying some of that OS X security. You're firewalling Windows XP with Mac OS X! You, the noob, has his own UNIX firewall! Now how cool is that?
If you've got the cash and a looking for a good all-round computer, get a Mac. If you don't have the cash, save up and then buy a Mac. If you're a gamer... get whatever the hell you want because you're likely to have already set you're mind on something and anything else is just "bogus", and if you're a Linux/BSD geek like me, well... one day you may want a Mac and run Gentoo or something else on it, but I'm personally enjoying this use I have of my Dad's older iMac G5 and am seriously considering turning my Gentoo Desktop PC into a server and buying a MacBook Pro like Mum's for my main machine. :)
Te Quiero, Puta!
On OS X, you can do more than screw the user account. The entire Applications directory is writable as users are in the "Admin" group by default.
The perms in general are a good deal looser than a normal Unix system in order to make it more useful as a single-user desktop. Totally understandable decision, but peopel tend to make assumptions about the protection level of OS X sudo login system that aren't true.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
A correction, users are not in the admin group by default, only the first user of the machine. Subsequent users are by default not administrators.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
It's more complicated than that.
On your Mac, as a default admin user, try and delete an application from your Applications directory?
Can you do it without typing in your password?
Nope; The directory is writable, however, the contents are not. Interesting, no? You can create new entries, but you cannot alter/delete existing entries.
Seems like a satisfactory security model to me. I guess it enables "spoofing" issues.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell