How safe are apples?

superscaper

JustPassingBy wrote: »

I gave up trying to prove or disprove a negative a long time ago.

Except for your recent posts. :rolleyes: That was my point.

superscaper

JustPassingBy wrote: »

And they are?

Googling "mac wild virus" can't be too hard.

superscaper

JustPassingBy wrote: »

Sir Bertrand would appear to have a similar view.
.

I think you misunderstood, the point is that you can't say never. Absence of finding something is not proof of its non existence. :rolleyes:

JustPassingBy

superscaper wrote: »

Googling "mac wild virus" can't be too hard.

No it's not, but it would have been useful to know we are talking about the same two pieces of malware.

First hit:

http://www.scmagazine.com/uk/news/article/541952/second-mac-virus-wild/

That's a worm, not a virus. It exploits a vulnerability in a service.

Second hit:

http://blogs.msdn.com/nadyne/archive/2006/02/15/533022.aspx

That's a trojan. It doesn't spread and has to be run by root.

Worms, trojans and rootkits are a concern, not viruses.

There hasn't been a decent worm attack for ages but having software up-to-date works works wonders as a defence. You can't do much about trojans if someone is careless enough to install an run an unknown software as root.

So we are back to precisely zero viruses.

Brian.

superscaper

Depends on who you ask and is more about opinion on etymology. Worms are sometimes considered a subset category of viruses and trojans a superset of viruses so while not all trojans are viruses, all true viruses are specialised trojans. I guess if you use a particular subjective set of definitions to begin with even if there were what many would call viruses you could still claim that there aren't any viruses.

JustPassingBy

superscaper wrote: »

I think you misunderstood, the point is that you can't say never. Absence of finding something is not proof of its non existence. :rolleyes:

This is a general point, right? Before we get back to the techie bit.

I'm prepared to say that you can never build a perpetual motion machine.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence? I'd hope not to be tried in court on that basis.

Brian.

superscaper

JustPassingBy wrote: »

I'm prepared to say that you can never build a perpetual motion machine.

You're really going to compare breaking the laws of all known physics to someone writing a virus for a mac (which AFAIK is merely a technical issue not one that contravenes known natural law)?

JustPassingBy

superscaper wrote: »

Depends on who you ask and is more about opinion on etymology. Worms are sometimes considered a subset category of viruses and trojans a superset of viruses so while not all trojans are viruses, all true viruses are specialised trojans. I guess if you use a particular subjective set of definitions to begin with even if there were what many would call viruses you could still claim that there aren't any viruses.

These people who call worms viruses; are they the same people who refer to rain, snow, drizzle, downpour, monsoon and hailstone as precipitation? It must make it difficult to decide what protective clothing to wear.

I don't think the descriptions I gave are particularly subjective. Lumping all malware together plays on users' fears and ignorance and works only to the benefit of anti-virus vendors. And you're correct - I'd not be overjoyed by someone passing a trojan off as a worm or virus. They operate differently and require different defences.

Brian.

superscaper

JustPassingBy wrote: »

I don't think the descriptions I gave are particularly subjective.

Don't have access to my Internationally Recognised JustPassingBy Encyclopaedia at the moment so you'll have to forgive me for not having exactly the same definitions in my head.

Blacksheep1979

JustPassingBy wrote: »

Services are attacked by worms. Any system is vulnerable. The solution is to keep the it up-to-date. Then you are safe.

Brian.

I'm sorry, are you stupid? Why are there updates? Ooooh because there are vulnerabilities. Also read about the pwnToOwn comp and you'll find all computers were fully patched and the contestants had to think up new, not previously existing exploits. So how come people manage that on a fully patched system if you are safe?

Your arguments are flawed and as I said before the fingers in ears 'nananananan' attitude is what is really going to sting mac users when serious malware starts to appear - and thats when not if and that is the consensus of several security proffesionals that I've talked to.