I've given up on Spam filtering and concentrating my efforts on Ham filtering.
Basically the present thinking is based on attempting to filter spam out - I would argue that given the amount of variables involved, it it a method doomed to failure. Current methods also assume that the incoming mail is mostly valid, and are attempting to remove the undesirable parts - spam.
What I am having success with is turning this on it's head and assuming that the bulk of incoming mail is bad, and filtering in messages that I want.
The way I am doing this is to use my address book as a whitelist - if an incoming message originates from someone in my address book, then it's delivered into the inbox. If not, then they are moved into a "not in address book" sub folder. Anything my ISP spam assassin based filtering marks, is sent into the "Spam" folder. Doing it this way means that I am only notified of incoming mail that is confirmed from someone in my address book. Periodically I check the other folders (obviously).
We have come to the point I think where the number of variables involved makes filtering in a less intensive process than attempting to deal with the myriad of underhanded techniques that spammers use. By limiting the mail I want to people in my address book, I make it so that spammers are the ones having to deal with the variables as they would have to guess addresses in my address book. If lots of people started filtering like this when we would see spammers using known bulk mail addresses (such as the address iTunes receipts are mailed from) however we can simply alter the filter to include the originating IP / mailer and so on.
Think of it like fishing - you wouldn't attempt to control an entire ocean and remove the water to leave the fish - you accept that the water is there and develop techniques to get the fish out.
The MMORPG Neocron makes use of stealth ability for the Spy character class, who can stealth for short periods of time once they achieve a certain level. It does make the game interesting when you have to take into account that you might not be alone when you think you are. There are ways to combat stealthed players, such as AoE weapons and the Psi Monks have a spell that can cancel stealth - the classes really are designed to compliment each other.
And then when they next use what they think is IE they'll say "Oh Wow, Microsoft really improved their browser".
No, your average user is utterly oblivious to Microsoft and so on. They really really couldn't care less so long as "Hotmail works". They know that if they click on a blue icon that says "Internet Explorer" then they can look at porn and so on.
Case in point - I installed Firefox for my father recently - he got a PC about 2 years ago and is very much the sort of person who will install anything and click anywhere (while naturally insisting that he doesnt). I introduced him to the concept of spyware recently and installed Spybot, AdAware et al sold to him under the fact that people are "spying on him" (otherwise he wouldnt care). I went around to visit last Sunday and he told me that his spyware software was not working "because it doesnt pick anything up anymore where it used to find lots of stuff". The reason was because he now uses Firefox and literally can't get most spyware, however trying to explain this concept to him is difficult and I can see it just going over his head.
If average users did understand these things, then everyone would patch and keep things up to date and would have Firefox installed anyway but as we know this will never happen. In comparison it would be a bit like we techies limiting our computer use, not playing video games and playing sport and not eating ramen and so on because "someone in the news said it was good for us". I'm sure somewhere there will be an employee management oriented/. site somewhere with news stories like "Getting your techies to eat more vegetables and go outside" and people arguing about how to go about that and people saying "omg he drinks HOW many cups of coffee?? Well just tell him how bad it is for him and he will stop". Not going to happen really is it?
I once had a PC case into which I was installing an old Iomega Jaz drive.
It was cheap and the type where you punch out the 5/14 plastic drive bay cover from behind, but before you do that you have to remove a metal plate that needs to be removed by bending it back and forth until the metal fatigues. and snaps.
I decided that the best way to do this at the time was to insert my arm inside the case and wiggle the metal plate until it broke, from which position I could then punch out the plastic cover from the inside. The plastic cover was pretty flush with the case meaning I couldnt just jam a screwdriver in there from the front.
I underestimated just how sharp the interiors of cheap cases can be, and after pushing the metal plate at the bottom forward so it bent, my fingers slipped through the gap as the metal bent back, which then sprung back cutting into my fingers. My left arm was stuck in the case, (and naturally I am the type of guy who screws in the little screws on cables). There was no way I could get my arm out of the damn thing without removing the metal plate, and I couldn't get any leverage on it form inside without seriously cutting my fingers open. To make it worse I could feel the thing slicing deeping into my fingers which was starting to really hurt.
I had the thing stuck on my arm for about 10 minutes before the pain got so bad that I *had* to do something to get the thing off - I couldnt move very far due to the cables all being connected and routed through my desk, and the only thing I had to hand was a large screw driver. I started bashing the plastic front with the screw driver but couldnt get the damn thing off or get any purchase on it to prise it off. By this point blood is starting to drip from the bottom of the case and I'm thinking there is *no way* I'm going to be found having bled to death like this, and if I could get the cables off, I could picture myself embarrassed as hell in the emergency room with a computer stuck to my arm.
In the end I had to grit my teeth and force my hand further through to punch out the plastic meaning I could get my other hand in there to bend the metal away. Cut myself more in the process but it was wotth it.
Lessons learned from this are: 1. never screw in cables 2. push from the *top* as your fingers bend down not up 3. cheap cases can also cost you an arm or a leg, just not figuratively speaking.
To see how this affects the crap that the music industry produces.
Imagine it if the chart is not tampered with (not going to happen really is it) - we will see lots of people purchasing old songs I think rather than buying millions of copies of the latest manufactured crap.
I wonder how they will fiddle the chart? Repeated downloads by representatives of an artist or record company could be tracked by account / IP etc.
It will be interesting to see how the content produced by the industry alters as a result of better stats. I wonder if they will start data mining the songs to see what does and doesnt work and what people buy.
Yet another reason why ivory elephant tusks should be banned.
Really - there will be people out there calling for SpiderMan to be banned because of this. I say ban tusks as if the tusk was not there, the accident could not have happened.
I'm curious about the scene in SpiderMan 2 where he impales himself on an ivory elephant tusk. I suppose it's lucky he hadn't been watching Edward Scissorhands.
It would be really interesting if someone made a game accurately based on the bible (Which version? Ed.) where we could have the crusades for example, or perhaps a Populous type game where you have to invade an alternative culture and "persuade" the natives to convert to your religion. It could have the inquisition and various methods of torturing people who didnt agree with the church, and various violent killings and so forth. It would make a great multiplayer where you could choose to be the Romans, the Christians or the Muslims and so on.
The best part would be when the various happy clappy groups tried to ban it for blasphemy. After all - it would be based on "actual biblical events" and to disagree with this would surely be a sin? I think it would make an interesting statement about violence while showing that all dominant cultures are essentially the same.
I suppose it might end up like a low-tech version of C&C Generals but with the super weapons replaced by deity smiting etc.
Looking forward to seeing just how the zealots deal with this. Lets see - we will either see attempts to deflect away from the fact that there almost are no games on the Mac (however it is getting better admittedly with Doom3 planned etc) or we will see the obligatory "games dont matter" arguments (fair enough if you only use your computer for work). No doubt we will see things along the lines of the usual "Apple invented x" where x in this case is games, or perhaps we will be told that there are more games on the Mac than any other platform (no seriously - it would not surprise me to see people write this - if they also believe it then we are getting into scary territory).
Here is something else I have learned about Mac culture - take a look at all the message boards like MacRumors etc. See - there is this cultural thing where they all post the spec of their machine, often with (I'm not kidding) the brand of their memory! From what I can see, those who have the best PowerMac or most iPods are revered.
Here I will attempt to throw the zealot mind into confusion - you see - I just ordered a DP2.5Ghz PowerMac, into which I will be throwing about 4Gb of RAM. This puts me (for now) at the top of the Mac food chain, meaning that my statement here cannot be modded down!
MAC banning is ineffective since nearly every card these days can have it's MAC address reprogramed. Real solutions are tied to the student's university login account which is associated with their other student records.
But what if they start using someone elses login, or they start sharing login information? Try detecting that easily.
A secure method using Windows 2k/XP would be to put the machines into a domain, use GPO's to turn on autoupdate and use IPSEC based on a domain certificate for authentication to servers (or perhaps route them through an ISA firewall) and tell the servers / firewall to only use IPSEC. Doing this would enforce updates via automatic update (its only bandwidth heavy for the first few days but means the machines will update themselves even at home) and using IPSEC means that only machines you have processed to be in the domain and have a cert will be able to talk on the network. Without getting access to system admin accounts they are going to have a hard time getting around that.
Looking forward to seeing just how the zealots deal with this. Lets see - we will either see attempts to deflect away from the fact that there almost are no games on the Mac (however it is getting better admittedly with Doom3 planned etc) or we will see the obligatory "games dont matter" arguments (fair enough if you only use your computer for work). No doubt we will see things along the lines of the usual "Apple invented x" where x in this case is games, or perhaps we will be told that there are more games on the Mac than any other platform (no seriously - it would not surprise me to see people write this - if they also believe it then we are getting into scary territory).
Here is something else I have learned about Mac culture - take a look at all the message boards like MacRumors etc. See - there is this cultural thing where they all post the spec of their machine, often with (I'm not kidding) the brand of their memory! From what I can see, those who have the best PowerMac or most iPods are revered.
Here I will attempt to throw the zealot mind into confusion - you see - I just ordered a DP2.5Ghz PowerMac, into which I will be throwing about 4Gb of RAM. This puts me (for now) at the top of the Mac food chain, meaning that my statement here cannot be modded down!
You hit a pet hate of mine - it's "Mac" not "MAC". MAC is an acronym of Media Access Control and has absolutely nothing to do specifically with Apple, however Mac's have MACs which is where it gets confusing if you don't know the difference.
1. Disconnect machine from net 2. Install XP 3. Before connecting to net, enable XP firewall. (Right click on network connection, properties, advanced, "Protect my computer.." 4. Turn on Automatic Updates (Right click on My Computer, properties, then click tick box on automatic updates). 5. Connect to net. 6. Let it patch itself, or if you want, do it manually via Windows Update.
Really, why this simple simple process seems so difficult to Linux users is beyond me. You wouldn't connect a Linux system running say, an old version of Samba or Apache to the net without IP Tables now would you?
The way I see it, lots of people I see don't want Windows for any reason other than it's free (they copy it) and everyone else they know uses it meaning they have a market for pirate games and movies. Microsoft obviously are aware of this, and it keeps them in business as more people are familiar with their product.
You want to see Linux with the same marketshare as Windows - movies and music are already covered - it's already cheap - just make it easy to install (almost there) easy to use and run pirate games.
Oh one last thing - there must be only one version that everyone uses so they feel like they are fitting in.
You could always start charging for it so people feel like they have gained something by copying it, but just never prosecute. I mean - Windows must be better than Linux as it costs a lot right? "XP costs $300? Well the Linux I use costs $500 so it must be better."
UNIX based systems include some very high profile targets, like banks and mega-corporations. Even if there are a lot fewer script kiddees trying to target FreeBSD, there are some very skilled pros trying to steal literally millions of dollars via UNIX exploits. Yet somehow there aren't nearly as many exploits out there.
You see, the banks dont let the office staff sit on the Big Iron surfing the web for pr0n and using it to read email, plus, you don't exactly connect your uber bank systems directly to the net.
Anyway, please explain how Classic MacOS had like 2 viruses in 10 years despite having zero security features. Lack of popularity and lack of developers , end of story.
Linux is on a hell of a lot of servers. The group that writes a virus to bounce amongest those servers would be top of the virus writers pile. It would be a huge feather in there cap, and they would get bragging writes up the wazoo. you get my point.
But, oddly enough, when was the last time you heard a company have to shut down there linux servers becasue of a virus?
Not the point. Those Linux servers don't have a novice computer user sitting at them browsing the web clicking "yes" whenever something tries to install or reading email on them.
Malware writers will always take the easiest route to cash, meaning they will hit the weakest link in the chain. The weakest link in any computer system is the novice user. You can have the most secure operating system in the world with perfect code and no exploits. I guarantee you that there are users out there that if a box popped up on their screen and said "Would you like to wipe all your files?" would click "Yes". The majority of users are stupid. Every admin knows this.
Oh, ferchrissake, stop spouting that old FUD about how Windoze market dominance means it's the preferred target for viruses, and if Mac had a 90% share, it would be targeted too. It's just not true.
Do you seriously believe that if the Mac had 90% market share it would not be targetted by malware authors?
What planet are you on?? That's like saying if 8 track tapes had the market share that CD's have, they would not be pirated.
How you can also come to the conclusion that it's "FUD" that Windows is targeted because of how widespread it is is also beyond me. You see - the people who write this crap do so for MONEY. They way you make MONEY with spyware / zombie spam relays et al is by hitting as MANY targets as possible, as there will always be a percentage of people who dont patch their systems, don't run anti virus or will install literally ANYTHING when prompted and you want to hit them. At the moment if you want to make money in this way you hit the millions and millions of Windows systems. If the Mac had the market share Windows has right now, you would see lots of attempts to target malware at it. If there is money to be made, they will come.
Slashdot Mirror
I've given up on Spam filtering and concentrating my efforts on Ham filtering.
Basically the present thinking is based on attempting to filter spam out - I would argue that given the amount of variables involved, it it a method doomed to failure. Current methods also assume that the incoming mail is mostly valid, and are attempting to remove the undesirable parts - spam.
What I am having success with is turning this on it's head and assuming that the bulk of incoming mail is bad, and filtering in messages that I want.
The way I am doing this is to use my address book as a whitelist - if an incoming message originates from someone in my address book, then it's delivered into the inbox. If not, then they are moved into a "not in address book" sub folder. Anything my ISP spam assassin based filtering marks, is sent into the "Spam" folder. Doing it this way means that I am only notified of incoming mail that is confirmed from someone in my address book. Periodically I check the other folders (obviously).
We have come to the point I think where the number of variables involved makes filtering in a less intensive process than attempting to deal with the myriad of underhanded techniques that spammers use. By limiting the mail I want to people in my address book, I make it so that spammers are the ones having to deal with the variables as they would have to guess addresses in my address book. If lots of people started filtering like this when we would see spammers using known bulk mail addresses (such as the address iTunes receipts are mailed from) however we can simply alter the filter to include the originating IP / mailer and so on.
Think of it like fishing - you wouldn't attempt to control an entire ocean and remove the water to leave the fish - you accept that the water is there and develop techniques to get the fish out.
The MMORPG Neocron makes use of stealth ability for the Spy character class, who can stealth for short periods of time once they achieve a certain level. It does make the game interesting when you have to take into account that you might not be alone when you think you are. There are ways to combat stealthed players, such as AoE weapons and the Psi Monks have a spell that can cancel stealth - the classes really are designed to compliment each other.
It's a great game and they are about to launch a major update (check out the video) or you can get a demo version or download the full game for a full trial.
And then when they next use what they think is IE they'll say "Oh Wow, Microsoft really improved their browser".
/. site somewhere with news stories like "Getting your techies to eat more vegetables and go outside" and people arguing about how to go about that and people saying "omg he drinks HOW many cups of coffee?? Well just tell him how bad it is for him and he will stop". Not going to happen really is it?
No, your average user is utterly oblivious to Microsoft and so on. They really really couldn't care less so long as "Hotmail works". They know that if they click on a blue icon that says "Internet Explorer" then they can look at porn and so on.
Case in point - I installed Firefox for my father recently - he got a PC about 2 years ago and is very much the sort of person who will install anything and click anywhere (while naturally insisting that he doesnt). I introduced him to the concept of spyware recently and installed Spybot, AdAware et al sold to him under the fact that people are "spying on him" (otherwise he wouldnt care). I went around to visit last Sunday and he told me that his spyware software was not working "because it doesnt pick anything up anymore where it used to find lots of stuff". The reason was because he now uses Firefox and literally can't get most spyware, however trying to explain this concept to him is difficult and I can see it just going over his head.
If average users did understand these things, then everyone would patch and keep things up to date and would have Firefox installed anyway but as we know this will never happen. In comparison it would be a bit like we techies limiting our computer use, not playing video games and playing sport and not eating ramen and so on because "someone in the news said it was good for us". I'm sure somewhere there will be an employee management oriented
No you fool! You apply an IE theme to FF and change it's icon and rename it to "Internet Explorer" (or "Porn" depending on what you normally call it).
Your average user would never know the difference.
I once had a PC case into which I was installing an old Iomega Jaz drive.
It was cheap and the type where you punch out the 5/14 plastic drive bay cover from behind, but before you do that you have to remove a metal plate that needs to be removed by bending it back and forth until the metal fatigues. and snaps.
I decided that the best way to do this at the time was to insert my arm inside the case and wiggle the metal plate until it broke, from which position I could then punch out the plastic cover from the inside. The plastic cover was pretty flush with the case meaning I couldnt just jam a screwdriver in there from the front.
I underestimated just how sharp the interiors of cheap cases can be, and after pushing the metal plate at the bottom forward so it bent, my fingers slipped through the gap as the metal bent back, which then sprung back cutting into my fingers. My left arm was stuck in the case, (and naturally I am the type of guy who screws in the little screws on cables). There was no way I could get my arm out of the damn thing without removing the metal plate, and I couldn't get any leverage on it form inside without seriously cutting my fingers open. To make it worse I could feel the thing slicing deeping into my fingers which was starting to really hurt.
I had the thing stuck on my arm for about 10 minutes before the pain got so bad that I *had* to do something to get the thing off - I couldnt move very far due to the cables all being connected and routed through my desk, and the only thing I had to hand was a large screw driver. I started bashing the plastic front with the screw driver but couldnt get the damn thing off or get any purchase on it to prise it off. By this point blood is starting to drip from the bottom of the case and I'm thinking there is *no way* I'm going to be found having bled to death like this, and if I could get the cables off, I could picture myself embarrassed as hell in the emergency room with a computer stuck to my arm.
In the end I had to grit my teeth and force my hand further through to punch out the plastic meaning I could get my other hand in there to bend the metal away. Cut myself more in the process but it was wotth it.
Lessons learned from this are: 1. never screw in cables 2. push from the *top* as your fingers bend down not up 3. cheap cases can also cost you an arm or a leg, just not figuratively speaking.
Nasty - best way to do a "DELETE ... WHERE" if you're at an SQL console is to do ...
...a check that there is a DB backup first!
To see how this affects the crap that the music industry produces.
Imagine it if the chart is not tampered with (not going to happen really is it) - we will see lots of people purchasing old songs I think rather than buying millions of copies of the latest manufactured crap.
I wonder how they will fiddle the chart? Repeated downloads by representatives of an artist or record company could be tracked by account / IP etc.
It will be interesting to see how the content produced by the industry alters as a result of better stats. I wonder if they will start data mining the songs to see what does and doesnt work and what people buy.
Yet another reason why ivory elephant tusks should be banned.
Really - there will be people out there calling for SpiderMan to be banned because of this. I say ban tusks as if the tusk was not there, the accident could not have happened.
I'm curious about the scene in SpiderMan 2 where he impales himself on an ivory elephant tusk. I suppose it's lucky he hadn't been watching Edward Scissorhands.
It would be really interesting if someone made a game accurately based on the bible (Which version? Ed.) where we could have the crusades for example, or perhaps a Populous type game where you have to invade an alternative culture and "persuade" the natives to convert to your religion. It could have the inquisition and various methods of torturing people who didnt agree with the church, and various violent killings and so forth. It would make a great multiplayer where you could choose to be the Romans, the Christians or the Muslims and so on.
The best part would be when the various happy clappy groups tried to ban it for blasphemy. After all - it would be based on "actual biblical events" and to disagree with this would surely be a sin? I think it would make an interesting statement about violence while showing that all dominant cultures are essentially the same.
I suppose it might end up like a low-tech version of C&C Generals but with the super weapons replaced by deity smiting etc.
Looking forward to seeing just how the zealots deal with this. Lets see - we will either see attempts to deflect away from the fact that there almost are no games on the Mac (however it is getting better admittedly with Doom3 planned etc) or we will see the obligatory "games dont matter" arguments (fair enough if you only use your computer for work). No doubt we will see things along the lines of the usual "Apple invented x" where x in this case is games, or perhaps we will be told that there are more games on the Mac than any other platform (no seriously - it would not surprise me to see people write this - if they also believe it then we are getting into scary territory).
Here is something else I have learned about Mac culture - take a look at all the message boards like MacRumors etc. See - there is this cultural thing where they all post the spec of their machine, often with (I'm not kidding) the brand of their memory! From what I can see, those who have the best PowerMac or most iPods are revered.
Here I will attempt to throw the zealot mind into confusion - you see - I just ordered a DP2.5Ghz PowerMac, into which I will be throwing about 4Gb of RAM. This puts me (for now) at the top of the Mac food chain, meaning that my statement here cannot be modded down!
MAC banning is ineffective since nearly every card these days can have it's MAC address reprogramed. Real solutions are tied to the student's university login account which is associated with their other student records.
But what if they start using someone elses login, or they start sharing login information? Try detecting that easily.
A secure method using Windows 2k/XP would be to put the machines into a domain, use GPO's to turn on autoupdate and use IPSEC based on a domain certificate for authentication to servers (or perhaps route them through an ISA firewall) and tell the servers / firewall to only use IPSEC. Doing this would enforce updates via automatic update (its only bandwidth heavy for the first few days but means the machines will update themselves even at home) and using IPSEC means that only machines you have processed to be in the domain and have a cert will be able to talk on the network. Without getting access to system admin accounts they are going to have a hard time getting around that.
Looking forward to seeing just how the zealots deal with this. Lets see - we will either see attempts to deflect away from the fact that there almost are no games on the Mac (however it is getting better admittedly with Doom3 planned etc) or we will see the obligatory "games dont matter" arguments (fair enough if you only use your computer for work). No doubt we will see things along the lines of the usual "Apple invented x" where x in this case is games, or perhaps we will be told that there are more games on the Mac than any other platform (no seriously - it would not surprise me to see people write this - if they also believe it then we are getting into scary territory).
Here is something else I have learned about Mac culture - take a look at all the message boards like MacRumors etc. See - there is this cultural thing where they all post the spec of their machine, often with (I'm not kidding) the brand of their memory! From what I can see, those who have the best PowerMac or most iPods are revered.
Here I will attempt to throw the zealot mind into confusion - you see - I just ordered a DP2.5Ghz PowerMac, into which I will be throwing about 4Gb of RAM. This puts me (for now) at the top of the Mac food chain, meaning that my statement here cannot be modded down!
MAC GAMING? Am I the only one that simply can't relate these two words with each other?
Nope
You hit a pet hate of mine - it's "Mac" not "MAC". MAC is an acronym of Media Access Control and has absolutely nothing to do specifically with Apple, however Mac's have MACs which is where it gets confusing if you don't know the difference.
Two more words:
Slashdot effect.
Well put it this way - if it connects to Exchange (reliably) then a lot of people can start seriously rolling out Linux to the desktop.
But will it talk to Exchange?
And these phones could make it into the U.S. in the next year.
Holy crap! You mean they have been in Europe for the last couple of years?
1. Disconnect machine from net
2. Install XP
3. Before connecting to net, enable XP firewall. (Right click on network connection, properties, advanced, "Protect my computer.."
4. Turn on Automatic Updates (Right click on My Computer, properties, then click tick box on automatic updates).
5. Connect to net.
6. Let it patch itself, or if you want, do it manually via Windows Update.
Really, why this simple simple process seems so difficult to Linux users is beyond me. You wouldn't connect a Linux system running say, an old version of Samba or Apache to the net without IP Tables now would you?
The way I see it, lots of people I see don't want Windows for any reason other than it's free (they copy it) and everyone else they know uses it meaning they have a market for pirate games and movies. Microsoft obviously are aware of this, and it keeps them in business as more people are familiar with their product.
You want to see Linux with the same marketshare as Windows - movies and music are already covered - it's already cheap - just make it easy to install (almost there) easy to use and run pirate games.
Oh one last thing - there must be only one version that everyone uses so they feel like they are fitting in.
You could always start charging for it so people feel like they have gained something by copying it, but just never prosecute. I mean - Windows must be better than Linux as it costs a lot right? "XP costs $300? Well the Linux I use costs $500 so it must be better."
UNIX based systems include some very high profile targets, like banks and mega-corporations. Even if there are a lot fewer script kiddees trying to target FreeBSD, there are some very skilled pros trying to steal literally millions of dollars via UNIX exploits. Yet somehow there aren't nearly as many exploits out there.
You see, the banks dont let the office staff sit on the Big Iron surfing the web for pr0n and using it to read email, plus, you don't exactly connect your uber bank systems directly to the net.
Anyway, please explain how Classic MacOS had like 2 viruses in 10 years despite having zero security features. Lack of popularity and lack of developers , end of story.
Someone has trouble counting to 2:
AutoStart 9805 666 / Flag / MacOS/Simpsons@MM / W32/Bugbear@MM / MacOS/MBDF / MacOS/nVIR / MacOS/Peace / MacOS/MDEF / MacOS/NVP / MacOS/INIT-M / MacOS/WDEF / MacOS/ZUC / MacOS/SevenDust / MacOS/ANTI / MacOS/CDEF / MacOS/Flag / MacOS/Frankie / MacOS/Amphimix / Mac/Simpsons@MM / Mac/AutoStart.worm.g / Mac/AutoStart.worm.f / Mac/AutoStart.worm.e / Mac/AutoStart.worm.d / Mac/AutoStart.worm.c / Mac/AutoStart.worm.b / Mac/AutoStart.worm.a / MacOS/ZUC.c / MacOS/ZUC.b / MacOS/ZUC.a / MacOS/WDEF.b / MacOS/WDEF.a / MacOS/SysX / MacOS/SevenDust.gen / MacOS/SevenDust.d / MacOS/SevenDust.c / MacOS/SevenDust.b / MacOS/SevenDust.a / MacOS/nVIR.dam / MacOS/nVIR.c.dam / MacOS/nVIR.a.dam / MacOS/nVIR.gen / MacOS/nVIR.c / MacOS/nVIR.a / MacOS/MDEF.d / MacOS/MDEF.gen / MacOS/MBDF.b / MacOS/MBDF.a / MacOS/CDEF.b / MacOS/CDEF.a / MacOS/SevenDust.e / MacOS/ANTI.b / MacOS/ANTI.a / MacOS/AutoStart.worm.g / MacOS/AutoStart.worm.f / MacOS/AutoStart.worm.e / MacOS/AutoStart.worm.d / MacOS/AutoStart.worm.c / MacOS/AutoStart.worm.b / MacOS/AutoStart.worm.a / MacOS/AutoStart.worm.h / MacOS/SevenDust.j / MacOS/SevenDust.dr / MacOS/ChinaTalk
And the reason there were not more is MARKETSHARE.
Linux is on a hell of a lot of servers. The group that writes a virus to bounce amongest those servers would be top of the virus writers pile. It would be a huge feather in there cap, and they would get bragging writes up the wazoo. you get my point.
But, oddly enough, when was the last time you heard a company have to shut down there linux servers becasue of a virus?
Not the point. Those Linux servers don't have a novice computer user sitting at them browsing the web clicking "yes" whenever something tries to install or reading email on them.
Malware writers will always take the easiest route to cash, meaning they will hit the weakest link in the chain. The weakest link in any computer system is the novice user. You can have the most secure operating system in the world with perfect code and no exploits. I guarantee you that there are users out there that if a box popped up on their screen and said "Would you like to wipe all your files?" would click "Yes". The majority of users are stupid. Every admin knows this.
Oh, ferchrissake, stop spouting that old FUD about how Windoze market dominance means it's the preferred target for viruses, and if Mac had a 90% share, it would be targeted too. It's just not true.
Do you seriously believe that if the Mac had 90% market share it would not be targetted by malware authors?
What planet are you on?? That's like saying if 8 track tapes had the market share that CD's have, they would not be pirated.
How you can also come to the conclusion that it's "FUD" that Windows is targeted because of how widespread it is is also beyond me. You see - the people who write this crap do so for MONEY. They way you make MONEY with spyware / zombie spam relays et al is by hitting as MANY targets as possible, as there will always be a percentage of people who dont patch their systems, don't run anti virus or will install literally ANYTHING when prompted and you want to hit them. At the moment if you want to make money in this way you hit the millions and millions of Windows systems. If the Mac had the market share Windows has right now, you would see lots of attempts to target malware at it. If there is money to be made, they will come.
...and your point is?