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How to Save Mac OS X From Malware
eXchange writes "Well-known hacker Dino Dai Zovi has written an article at ZDNet discussing last week's discovery of a critical threat to Mac OS X, and another announcement of a Trojan horse exploiting this discovery. He suggests that Snow Leopard, or Mac OS X 10.6, should integrate more robust means of preventing malware attacks. Some of the suggestions he has include mandatory code-signing for kernel extensions (so only certified kernel extensions can run), sandbox policies for Safari, Mail, and third-party applications (so these applications cannot do anything to the system), and some lower-level changes, such as hardware-enforced Non-eXecutable memory and address space layout randomization."
It was always going to eventually happen. Given the increasing market share of OS X it was only a matter of time before the hackers got interested. Yet even they had to wait till a sufficient base of idiots got into OS X to make their job easier. I know people who significant other has trashed home PCs more than once opening attachments or running attachments even after all the pop ups. Note the more than once.
People forget or get in a hurry. Its the hacker's job to exploit that nature. That makes it difficult for the owners of the OS because even if you require a password/etc to execute something many people will just do that, type in the password regardless. Its like the story of the young girl who was a latch key kid, told to never ever let people in the house while mom was gone. Yet she did three times and even denied it until shown the film showing these people being let in. Worse, she didn't recall because it was so automatic. She was distracted by something else and that focus let her pass over doing what was right.
I look at it this way on my iMac, if that password prompt comes up and I didn't click initiate it from some update I know came from Apple or I was loading a package I downloaded I am going cancel the process. Yet I am quite sure my friends SO would dutifully type the password in. Can't be helped. Sometimes people cannot accept they did something wrong even when you show them
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
It's not the interface's problem, it's the fact that 98% of computer users do not want to and will not learn anything about their computer. Some people will actively refuse to learn anything. So in light of that, the root of the problem is far, far deeper :(
Well then the solution's simple. Give people a license to use a computer. A computer is infintely more complex than a car, yet you need a driver's license for a car. Pending that, if a user decides to NOT get their "computing license", well they deserve to be infected by spyware, regardless of OS, browser etc.
Attempting to make products idiot-proof should not exist. If you want everything to be idiot-proof, you're ensuring that evolutions stops. Even the most hardliner christian can't deny the fact that some people are morons, dangerous or otherwise incapable of contributing to society.
Hence why we need to keep darwinism alive in some form or another. Unfortunately the US has too many lawyers that allow idiots to sue companies into making products idiot-proof, instead of letting idiots manage their population the only way they know how to: let the idiots be idiots and see which ones pull it through. They're either very lucky, or not that idiotic if they manage to not kill themselves.
---- I am certain of only one thing : I know nothing else.
Having knowledge is having additional responsibility. It took me quite a while to arrive at that conclusion, but if people can claim they didn't know or don't understand something, they are therefore not responsible for it. This goes well beyond knowing about computers and into all facets of life. For me, knowledge has always been important and desirable, so it was really hard to understand why the majority of people don't want any. But I believe I've hit upon the precise essence of why people don't want to know anything... they don't want it to be their fault.