101–110 of 125 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree. Visiting a malicious website or opening an email that exploits a vulnerability in your os or software is very common.
Citation? The last thing along those lines I'd heard of was the PNG(?) exploit.
As someone who used to sell Mac computers, I used to get asked the question "Is it true macs never get viruses?", to which I replied "No that's not true." (It was just an apple reseller store afterall so I was never compelled to bend the facts.) I'd try to explain the caveats a bit: a smaller market share and the unix based operating system requiring more permissions, yada yada, being "prohibitive" to an attack but s…
Yes, it is correct that Macs can get viruses. Where people get upset is when you generalize this to say that because >1 virus exists, OSX presents no significant advantage over Windows. Viruses are not a fact of life for Mac users. Talk to anyone who uses or services Macs; you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who's even seen an OSX virus. Whereas for Windows power-users, cleaning viruses for friends/parents is pract…
They'd only make their computer slower but hey, it's their choice.
Whoa, it aborts infection if you have XCode installed? Is this just to prevent itself from infecting someone's computer that might be able to study it?
I take requests from LS pretty seriously so it makes sense that they would do it. I would google the process and port if a random request occured.
I can’t seem to /newpoll — but I would like to see, out of those who run the instructions to check for the virus, how many of us actually had it. (I didn’t.)
This both saddens and delights me, as it proves that Macs are now at a large enough market share that malware writers are willing to target that platform ...
Did not pre X versions of Mac OS have more viruses in the wild with much smaller market share?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it is correct that Macs can get viruses. Where people get upset is when you generalize this to say that because >1 virus exists, OSX presents no significant advantage over Windows. Viruses are not a fact of life for Mac users. Talk to anyone who uses or services Macs; you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who's even seen an OSX virus. Whereas for Windows power-users, cleaning viruses for friends/parents is pract…
Malware creators are going to get more creative and more dangerous now that Windows is better and Macs are more popular. Technical countermeasures can only do so much against a determined mind with a strong incentive.
Contrast that with typical Windows situation where no user cooperation is required to get infected.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it is correct that Macs can get viruses. Where people get upset is when you generalize this to say that because >1 virus exists, OSX presents no significant advantage over Windows. Viruses are not a fact of life for Mac users. Talk to anyone who uses or services Macs; you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who's even seen an OSX virus. Whereas for Windows power-users, cleaning viruses for friends/parents is pract…
I've had new Mac users insist that I recommend an antivirus for them. Users who had very safe habits, didn't download basically any software or visit warez sites. They simply - and very sadly IMO - cannot reconcile the idea of a world where AV software is not completely necessary. They'd only make their computer slower but hey, it's their choice.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Malware creators are going to get more creative and more dangerous now that Windows is better and Macs are more popular. Technical countermeasures can only do so much against a determined mind with a strong incentive.
Windows is now better? What the fuck. You do realize this is Java exploit, and that recent versions of OS X don't even ship with Java. And on top of that this "malware" asks user for their admin password to install itself. And on top of that if you have dev tools or any of the popular system monitoring utilities it gives up! Contrast that with typical Windows situation where no user cooperation is required to get inf…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Malware creators are going to get more creative and more dangerous now that Windows is better and Macs are more popular. Technical countermeasures can only do so much against a determined mind with a strong incentive.
Windows is now better? What the fuck. You do realize this is Java exploit, and that recent versions of OS X don't even ship with Java. And on top of that this "malware" asks user for their admin password to install itself. And on top of that if you have dev tools or any of the popular system monitoring utilities it gives up! Contrast that with typical Windows situation where no user cooperation is required to get inf…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Malware creators are going to get more creative and more dangerous now that Windows is better and Macs are more popular. Technical countermeasures can only do so much against a determined mind with a strong incentive.
Windows is now better? What the fuck. You do realize this is Java exploit, and that recent versions of OS X don't even ship with Java. And on top of that this "malware" asks user for their admin password to install itself. And on top of that if you have dev tools or any of the popular system monitoring utilities it gives up! Contrast that with typical Windows situation where no user cooperation is required to get inf…