Apple Mac users

m5rcc

Millions of Apple customers who never installed anti virus software because "Macs just have better security than Windows" are in for a shock...

23n1th

Yep botnets are a bit ch!

McKneff

Would you like to elaborate then.

Fosterdog

m5rcc wrote: »

Millions of Apple customers who never installed anti virus software because "Macs just have better security than Windows" are in for a shock...

Well that was a helpful post

m5rcc

Fosterdog wrote: »

Well that was a helpful post

Just pointing out what Mac users are brainwashed to believe by Apple.

thescouselander

Well, I've just checked my Macbook and it's clean. I've run macs with no antivirus for nearly 10 years now and never had any trouble. To be honest I'm still to be convinced of the value of Anti Virus on OS X.

There aren't many viruses around on OS X so the chances are any infection would come from a zero day virus which Anti Virus software is notoriously bad at intercepting. Installing Anti Virus isn't a risk free endeavour either. It wasn't that long ago that there were more fake anti virus programmes containing malware than there were legitimate products. Also even legitimate anti virus programmes can open up new security holes in your system and they can cause other undesirable effects that impact on system performance.

Thats not to say I wouldn't install antivirus if things change but the risks infection just don't justify the risks and issues around installing antivirus.

Fosterdog

m5rcc wrote: »

Just pointing out what Mac users are brainwashed to believe by Apple.

I'm a mac user and am far from brainwashed by Apple, please provide a link to somewhere that Apple claim to be completely secure if you are going to throw accusations around.

Mac users tend to be a bit more tech savvy and less likely to let their machine become infected in the first place, that coupled with better security than windows and less viruses able to infect them and less damage caused if they are infected significantly lowers the risk (and no I'm not saying all mac users are more techie just the majority)

23n1th

Apparently the infected macs were infected because apple couldn't be bothered to fix a security flaw until six weeks after microsoft had done so.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/05/flashback_trojan_botnet/

"The Flashback malware was capable of installing itself on unprotected Mac machines without user interaction, a factor that goes a long way in explaining the success of its spread. Users become infected simply by visiting a site loaded with exploit code, in drive-by-download-style attacks."

The above is probably a good reason to install AV protection.

Some of those infected, over 200, were from "Cupertino, CA, where Apple's headquarters are located". Ouch

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/04/flashback-trojan-reportedly-controls-half-a-million-macs-and-counting.ars

If apples own adverts are to be believed macs don't get viruses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiWTcVHdSFo&feature=related

But the back in 2009 they quietly admitted they do:

http://www.switched.com/2009/09/01/apple-quietly-admits-macs-get-viruses/

Its interesting though because whilst there are more viruses for windows, windows is secured a lot lot faster than macs. Apple have a history of ignoring security issues and only acting after the fact, case in point being this botnet.

Notmyrealname

Large Mac botnet: 600,000 machines mostly not running antivirus.
Large Windows botnet is installed on every single Windows computer and has been since Windows 95.

jayme1

23n1th wrote: »

Apparently the infected macs were infected because apple couldn't be bothered to fix a security flaw until six weeks after microsoft had done so.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/05/flashback_trojan_botnet/

that article's wrong it wasn't microsoft that patched the Java vulnerability because Java isn't made or shipped in Windows, it is oracle (the makers of java) that updated it, the Java situation on Macs is weird because Apple build Java into OS X but then don't let Oracle update it and instead Apple take the patch and wait a while and then push them out.

IMO apple don't really take security patches seriously, just look how long it takes them on iOS to issue a patch to revoke something as simple as revoke some compromised browser certificates. (if I remember correctly it too them a while to patch safari on OS X too)
Apple prefer to save a load of patches up for and update in one go probably so they can say 'we only had 5 security updates last year' other OSs had hundreds, at the end of the day that sort of attitude only puts the end consumer at risk, and I don't mean the technologically savy forum user, I mean the type of person who don't know their Mac runs OS X.

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Large Mac botnet: 600,000 machines mostly not running antivirus.
Large Windows botnet is installed on every single Windows computer and has been since Windows 95.

this is just apple fanboi drivel, not every windows machine is part of a botnet, of course it isn't.

Notmyrealname

jayme1 wrote: »

this is just apple fanboi drivel, not every windows machine is part of a botnet, of course it isn't.

I'm not an Apple fan boy, just someone who has a MBP. I've MCSE and am a Microsoft Registered Refurbisher. I have Win7 on my desktop as do the kids on their laptops. The wife uses Ubuntu 10.04LTS and I install Linux Mint on any laptop I sell which doesn't come with a Windows licence. Don't give a stuff what the OS is.

Moving on, actually every Windows machine is.

The largest botnet in the world is comprised of computers running Microsoft Update and Microsoft controls this botnet. Yes, this really is a botnet. Don’t confuse the term botnet with the requirement that it send spam, steal information, or attack other computers. A bot is an automated program and a botnet is a group of computer with an automated program that is controlled by the same entity. Microsoft controls what Microsoft Update does. If Microsoft wants to install a piece of software that is completely useless to all customers with legal software, they simply call an anti-piracy program a critical update and all of the Microsoft Update bots obediently download and run the program. If Microsoft wanted to it could make all computers running Microsoft Update send spam, attack other computers, upload documents, and so forth.