http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57...-infected-with-flashback-botnet/?tag=mncol;1n
I guess Macs don't get viruses!
John
I guess Macs don't get viruses!
John
600,000- Macs infected with malware...
- Thread starter JCitron
- Start date
amigacooke
Well-known member
Did you look at the date on the story?
johnwhelan
Well-known member
amigacooke
Well-known member
Because it's old news, long since recognised and dealt with.
[h=2]Apple finally deploys Mac Flashback Trojan terminator[/h]
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johnwhelan
Well-known member
I'm still in contact with some of my old friends in the security area. It took them months, note months not days or hours, to respond and the initial reaction was to deny. The general consensus was that Apple is about ten years behind on security. Even your link mentions that some 250,000 machines are thought to be still infected.
Perhaps we should agree to disagree on what an acceptable level of malware vulnerability is on this one.
Cheerio John
amigacooke
Well-known member
My link was from 13 April 2012 and therefore out of date. Like this entire thread it's discussing events from 6 months ago as though it's current news. Sure OSX gets malware and maybe Apple are ten years behind (though I'd like to see some evidence of this 'general consensus), but one of the benefits of running OSX is there isn't the torrent of malware that there is for the PC. Probably nothing to do with the merits of the two platforms and everything to do with how many users there are of each.
Don't forget that the real issue until now has been "why?" It has never been an issue that it couldn't be done. Why would anyone waste the time and effort to actually create a virus on the Mac. With Macs at less than 10% of the market share of personal computers, would you rather spend your time and effort on malware for 10% of the market or for 90% of the market. You get a much greater return on your effort going after the 90%. The fact that malware is being written for them simply shows that the Macs are becoming much more prevalent.
amigacooke
Well-known member
Well said, though the easiest way for Macs to be infected with malware is to run Bootcamp.
One could say that like most Linux users, Mac users are not likely to be expecting or likely to be on the lookout for virus's and malware, or again as with Linux, people migrating from Windows are running as root with no password.
This one is from July this year. http://www.inquisitr.com/284576/apple-crisis-virus-for-mac-os-x-detected-by-intego/
This one is from July this year. http://www.inquisitr.com/284576/apple-crisis-virus-for-mac-os-x-detected-by-intego/
amigacooke
Well-known member
Seems I defeated that one by installing the latest version of OSX, 10.8.
Unfortunately My PPC G4 Mac Mini won't handle anything over Leopard which was the last version of OSX for PPC, apart from occasionally using Photoshop it doesn't get a lot of use now, G3 went to a deserving cause.
Thought? That could raise the question of whether all those infections were just on Intel, both or just the large number of PPC machines still about?
That's a good question, but I wonder too how many users have never bothered to patch either just because. With Microsoft, the systems are patched automatically for a lot of people. This has help quite a bit with the security problems that Microsoft has faced and has made Windows 7 one of the more secure versions of Windows today. Notice my wording on of the more secure. Sadly I don't think this is the case with a lot of Mac owners, or at least the ones that I know.
John
amigacooke
Well-known member
northcornice
New member
Sophos makes a free AV product for Mac. http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx