First, the people attacking had six months to prepare their exploits. Second, a lot of vulnerabilities are not Mac OSX at all, but installed products. Third, many of these competitions give the attacker an administrative password to make it easier. Fourth, many times, the Mac is the first computer featured, so, yes, it would be the first to fall. Finally, which would you want to get free, a MacBook Pro or a Windows laptop?
In the real world, I'll take my chances with a Mac over a Windows machine with antivirus any day.
First of all, there are malware exploits for OSX as well as for Windows. Sure, there aren't as many, but that is because of Apple's much lower market share, not due to some inherent advantage of the system. There was certainly a time when Windows was much less secure than competing OSes, but that time ended some years ago.
Sorry, OSX is inherently more secure than Windows. There was a guy who provided a free anti-virus program for Mac until Microsoft introduced Macro Viruses for Office which immediately caused the number of Mac viruses to jump to over 1,000. Now that's not saying that Windows isn't trying to catch up on security. The reality today is that many viruses are targeting installed software like Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash and the various browsers.
I agree with your recommendations until you get to "Always use a router." I always use a commercial-grade firewall (SonicWALL TZ 100, for example) instead. The rest of your suggestions I don't follow except the last, "Don't download and run random crap."
On Mac OSX, Numbers, Pages and Keynote can do most of what Office can do at a fraction of the price. I used Numbers the other day to convert an Excel spreadsheet that a Windows user couldn't open (because he didn't have the software for XML Excel).
But the purchasing agent doesn't use the equipment; he/she just buys it for others and can't tell the difference between prime rib and hamburger. I'm not speculating; I'm telling you what happened. The point here is that Defense Department procurement is essentially encouraging vendors to sell them counterfeits, all in the name of saving money. My source is from 2007: Fakes: Can You Tell The Difference?
But then we run into "too big to ban." When a big defense contractor violates the law, the federal government can't ban them because they may be the sole supplier of some big defense program. So they slap them on the wrist and let them go on bidding.
"And this would probably be illegal." For many businesses: Illegal is only illegal if you get caught. Patent violations are allowed until someone sues you. And a lot of people breaking the law are running around with multimillion dollar bonuses in their pocket.
Lowest bidder is the problem. In the Cisco counterfeit scandal, Cisco business partners were finding that the only way they could win a bid was by using, let's say, parts of dubious origin. If they were counterfeit, so be it (two words: "plausible deniably." And I'm wondering how many of these parts were "third shift" parts.
One of my clients, running two iSeries servers for their ERP, email and a sales Web site, was sold to another company. During the purchase process, they reviewed the cost of IT which, for several years now, has been less than 1% of sales, and that includes office supplies! This is for servers without IBM support and without any maintenance support (we buy spare parts when needed). Please don't try that with Windows! It simply won't work.
The purchase went through and the old owners are very happy with me right now.
You do understand that Microsoft is the one keeping Windows off the mainframe. I'm sure if Microsoft were to give its blessing, IBM would assign 300 programmers to port Windows Server to mainframes (System z) and midrange servers (Power Systems) in a heartbeat. I think Microsoft is afraid of IBM!
That's the way I read it. It's Windows running on either Intel or AMD. We've had it with the Power Systems (iSeries, AS/400) for years. Other than system management (for a time, it was the only Windows server that could reboot itself when it crashed) the big advantage was disk management. Like a virtual environment, you could add disk at will and the disk performance was considerably higher than a regular Windows server. On Power Systems, each Windows disk drive is striped over all the disk drives which could be 40 physical devices.
I just got my old Chevy out of the garage and installed a new camshaft, and it runs really well. You don't expect car owners to have to install camshafts to keep the car running, so why do you expect phone owners to have to root their devices? As a professional computer jock, I don't have time to deal with rooting. My wife tried Android for almost two years (thanks, dear) and now we both have iPhone 4Ss and we both love them.
Maybe not, but the apps on my wife's phone quit working, one by one. First Lexulous, then Facebook, then Twitter... This while it was still on contract and had only received one update, not two.
The point of theunderstatement.com is that all iPhones were able to run the latest OS at least three years after introduction and are supported with updates for at least two years. Not so much for Android; most Android phones (10 of 18) were two major releases or more behind within two years of introduction. Keep in mind this is introduction; if you bought your Android a year after it was introduced, don't expect it to ever be current.
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First, the people attacking had six months to prepare their exploits. Second, a lot of vulnerabilities are not Mac OSX at all, but installed products. Third, many of these competitions give the attacker an administrative password to make it easier. Fourth, many times, the Mac is the first computer featured, so, yes, it would be the first to fall. Finally, which would you want to get free, a MacBook Pro or a Windows laptop?
In the real world, I'll take my chances with a Mac over a Windows machine with antivirus any day.
A TZ 100 only costs about $240 which is worth the extra money even for home use, IMHO.
The average Windows home user reformats the hard disk and rebuilds the system every year or two, too, and I don't need that hassle.
And with my Toyota Corolla, I get to tailgate the BMW M1 owners who drive too slow...
First of all, there are malware exploits for OSX as well as for Windows. Sure, there aren't as many, but that is because of Apple's much lower market share, not due to some inherent advantage of the system. There was certainly a time when Windows was much less secure than competing OSes, but that time ended some years ago.
Sorry, OSX is inherently more secure than Windows. There was a guy who provided a free anti-virus program for Mac until Microsoft introduced Macro Viruses for Office which immediately caused the number of Mac viruses to jump to over 1,000. Now that's not saying that Windows isn't trying to catch up on security. The reality today is that many viruses are targeting installed software like Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash and the various browsers.
I agree with your recommendations until you get to "Always use a router." I always use a commercial-grade firewall (SonicWALL TZ 100, for example) instead. The rest of your suggestions I don't follow except the last, "Don't download and run random crap."
On Mac OSX, Numbers, Pages and Keynote can do most of what Office can do at a fraction of the price. I used Numbers the other day to convert an Excel spreadsheet that a Windows user couldn't open (because he didn't have the software for XML Excel).
But the purchasing agent doesn't use the equipment; he/she just buys it for others and can't tell the difference between prime rib and hamburger. I'm not speculating; I'm telling you what happened. The point here is that Defense Department procurement is essentially encouraging vendors to sell them counterfeits, all in the name of saving money. My source is from 2007: Fakes: Can You Tell The Difference?
Thanks for the tip on emails. I'll check it out.
But then we run into "too big to ban." When a big defense contractor violates the law, the federal government can't ban them because they may be the sole supplier of some big defense program. So they slap them on the wrist and let them go on bidding.
"And this would probably be illegal." For many businesses: Illegal is only illegal if you get caught. Patent violations are allowed until someone sues you. And a lot of people breaking the law are running around with multimillion dollar bonuses in their pocket.
plausible deniability. We need to be able to edit posted comments and an email notice when someone replies to our comment.
Lowest bidder is the problem. In the Cisco counterfeit scandal, Cisco business partners were finding that the only way they could win a bid was by using, let's say, parts of dubious origin. If they were counterfeit, so be it (two words: "plausible deniably." And I'm wondering how many of these parts were "third shift" parts.
Sorry, those of us who can fix it charge $75. I can make more money doing other things so why should I cut you a $65 break?
The key here is "(poorly) wired." Most likely it was a family thing and the government had nothing to do with it.
Also, he bought the SUV from his cousin. It could have been modified for hauling drugs across the border...
I was told in the '90s that IBM had more Windows experts than Microsoft had. Global Services makes a lot of money off of supporting Windows, yes.
One of my clients, running two iSeries servers for their ERP, email and a sales Web site, was sold to another company. During the purchase process, they reviewed the cost of IT which, for several years now, has been less than 1% of sales, and that includes office supplies! This is for servers without IBM support and without any maintenance support (we buy spare parts when needed). Please don't try that with Windows! It simply won't work.
The purchase went through and the old owners are very happy with me right now.
You do understand that Microsoft is the one keeping Windows off the mainframe. I'm sure if Microsoft were to give its blessing, IBM would assign 300 programmers to port Windows Server to mainframes (System z) and midrange servers (Power Systems) in a heartbeat. I think Microsoft is afraid of IBM!
The same reasons it's good for the banks makes it good for other companies. You, as a former IBMer, should know that.
That's the way I read it. It's Windows running on either Intel or AMD. We've had it with the Power Systems (iSeries, AS/400) for years. Other than system management (for a time, it was the only Windows server that could reboot itself when it crashed) the big advantage was disk management. Like a virtual environment, you could add disk at will and the disk performance was considerably higher than a regular Windows server. On Power Systems, each Windows disk drive is striped over all the disk drives which could be 40 physical devices.
I just got my old Chevy out of the garage and installed a new camshaft, and it runs really well. You don't expect car owners to have to install camshafts to keep the car running, so why do you expect phone owners to have to root their devices? As a professional computer jock, I don't have time to deal with rooting. My wife tried Android for almost two years (thanks, dear) and now we both have iPhone 4Ss and we both love them.
Maybe not, but the apps on my wife's phone quit working, one by one. First Lexulous, then Facebook, then Twitter... This while it was still on contract and had only received one update, not two.
Yes, that statement was incorrect. The earliest iPhones do not support iOS 5.
The point of theunderstatement.com is that all iPhones were able to run the latest OS at least three years after introduction and are supported with updates for at least two years. Not so much for Android; most Android phones (10 of 18) were two major releases or more behind within two years of introduction. Keep in mind this is introduction; if you bought your Android a year after it was introduced, don't expect it to ever be current.
Google's problems were with EVERY copy. Apple's problems only affect a few. Big difference.
So how is it that so many of us aren't having the problem? (No problem even though I didn't do anything special with my phone.)
That's why everyone in the company should have exactly the same model of Dell computer with the same software, same peripherals...