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Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

pcworld.com

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Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#71

Post by slurgfest »

mkr-hn wrote: post #27

Apple tried to claim Apple PCs were special, but it didn't remove the single biggest hazard to any claim of security. PC means personal computer, which means a system owned by millions of people without the technical skill to assess whether or not that attachment (whether it's birthday_card.dmg or birthday_card.exe) really came from grandma. All PCs are vulnerable to users. I'm glad Apple figured it out a few years s…

How do you figure that 'Apple figured it out a few years sooner than Microsoft did'?

I don't endorse Windows. But for all Windows' brokenness, Microsoft has not claimed invulnerability to viruses and has put a significant amount of effort into improving security from XP to today. The main reason it has had more trouble with malware is that it has been a much more popular platform, meaning that is where all the victims are.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#72

Post by technel »

silvestrov wrote: post #54
jiggy2011 wrote: post #33

Apple seem to be less interested in comparing themselves to MS and PCs in general these days. In ~2005 their entire marketing was based around trying to sell you a Mac as a PC replacement "Your next PC should be a Mac". I guess they are less interested now because it's a smaller % of their revenue and most of the people who would want/can afford a Mac are already giving them plenty of money so there's no desperate ne…

Apple's current focus is iPhone and iPad. Microsoft has zero market share in the table market ("there is no tablet market, there is an iPad market"), and a very small share in the mobile phone market. When you are #1 in a market, you don't do comparisons. The Apple Stores are probably the best marketing the Mac can ever get. So it's better for Apple to spend money on the stores than on making TV ads for the Mac. And…

It's pretty clear that the next Microsoft v. Apple war is being waged in the tablet market (the show is over for cellphones -- Apple won). Traditionally Microsoft hasn't done well at competing with Apple on their own turf (mobile, mp3 players, etc), but it'll be interesting to see what the Microsoft Surface means for all of this.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#73

Post by mkr-hn »

slurgfest wrote: post #71
mkr-hn wrote: post #27

Apple tried to claim Apple PCs were special, but it didn't remove the single biggest hazard to any claim of security. PC means personal computer, which means a system owned by millions of people without the technical skill to assess whether or not that attachment (whether it's birthday_card.dmg or birthday_card.exe) really came from grandma. All PCs are vulnerable to users. I'm glad Apple figured it out a few years s…

How do you figure that 'Apple figured it out a few years sooner than Microsoft did'? I don't endorse Windows. But for all Windows' brokenness, Microsoft has not claimed invulnerability to viruses and has put a significant amount of effort into improving security from XP to today. The main reason it has had more trouble with malware is that it has been a much more popular platform, meaning that is where all the victim…

Microsoft didn't make the same claims, but they showed the same lax attitude toward security for years. Apple only needed to see a few malware outbreaks to come to terms with reality.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#74

Post by mrich »

technel wrote: post #72
silvestrov wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's current focus is iPhone and iPad. Microsoft has zero market share in the table market ("there is no tablet market, there is an iPad market"), and a very small share in the mobile phone market. When you are #1 in a market, you don't do comparisons. The Apple Stores are probably the best marketing the Mac can ever get. So it's better for Apple to spend money on the stores than on making TV ads for the Mac. And…

It's pretty clear that the next Microsoft v. Apple war is being waged in the tablet market (the show is over for cellphones -- Apple won). Traditionally Microsoft hasn't done well at competing with Apple on their own turf (mobile, mp3 players, etc), but it'll be interesting to see what the Microsoft Surface means for all of this.

Apple won big in smartphones, but Android has a bigger marketshare. Competition between all smartphone vendors have made the customer the biggest winner in any case.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#75

Post by fjorder »

While Apple's install base is steadily growing, I still think they have a significant advantage in obscurity that grants them security.

i.e. Why do virus-writers target Windows? Sure, it has the largest install base, but Windows also runs a lot of servers and embedded systems. These two things are the real jackpots. What's taking control of one person's computer compared to taking control of a server with credit card information or a system running a billboard in Times square? Apple doesn't do embedded systems and their servers, while some do exist, are exceedingly rare.

Is security through obscurity enough though? That depends on who you are and how interesting your data is.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#76

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

thebigshane wrote: post #63

Can anyone here speak to the risk to FreeBSD (or other BSDs)? As MacOS becomes more of a target, how much more vulnerable does FreeBSD become?

Most vulnerabilities are unrelated to the actual OS stack and exploit other stuff. In that particular case is even wrong to say it was a "Mac virus", since it was a Java exploit and could have affected any system with Java installed. The point is that it remained unpatched for too long on Apple's Software Update.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#77

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

reidmain wrote: post #53

"Let's hope more Apple Mac owners are also learning to take important security steps -- such as installing antivirus protection." This is the worst possible step to take. When I switch someone over to Mac I take the opportunity to recalibrate how they see their computer as secure. I teach them to be more aware of what they are doing and how potential viruses could infect them. I find this is 100x more effective than…

All the noise the media is doing around this case is to actually drive a demand for antivirus software for Mac. You don't see any article mentioning installing software from trusted sources (like Mac App Store), digital signing, configuring firewall, keeping software up to date, etc. Their whole point is to compare the Mac platform to the Windows one, so they can conclude that installing antivirus software is the obvious choice.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#78

Post by Zr40 »

X-Istence wrote: post #31
fjarlq wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the recent Flashback.K qualifies to some degree. All you had to do is visit an infected webpage and the Java applet would walk onto your system. It would immediately ask for admin privileges, but due to the huge Java hole it would have your user privs automatically. Since OSX enabled Java by default, and since responsible practices were no defense, this compromised enough Macs that it was proportionally compa…

And then Apple disabled Java, and Apple no longer ships Java. Java has been a huge security vulnerability for a while now...

Apple still ships Java; it's just not installed by default. When you run a Java app without having Java installed, you get a prompt to automatically download and install Java.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#79

Post by cldrope »

This is a great step. I am personally pretty hateful of Apple's decisions as far as hardware lockdown and restrictive use, but it's a tradeoff they offer customers and many consider it a good deal.

That aside, being more security minded as opposed to claiming immunity for marketing purposes is a fantastic move and one to be applauded by the tech community.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#80

Post by cldrope »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #77
reidmain wrote: post #53

"Let's hope more Apple Mac owners are also learning to take important security steps -- such as installing antivirus protection." This is the worst possible step to take. When I switch someone over to Mac I take the opportunity to recalibrate how they see their computer as secure. I teach them to be more aware of what they are doing and how potential viruses could infect them. I find this is 100x more effective than…

All the noise the media is doing around this case is to actually drive a demand for antivirus software for Mac. You don't see any article mentioning installing software from trusted sources (like Mac App Store), digital signing, configuring firewall, keeping software up to date, etc. Their whole point is to compare the Mac platform to the Windows one, so they can conclude that installing antivirus software is the obv…

Thanks for recognizing one of the biggest downfalls of it. They could be opening the Apple platforms for massive "protect yourself" scare sales.
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