[jaws-uk] Re: Mac users.
- From: "Tristram Llewellyn" <tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jaws-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:12:42 +0100
I know this isn't strictly on topic but it does have some relevance. I
run both PC and Mac systems at home so I know both sides of the fence
very well. The Apple Mac could easily be attacked by viruses and as
several have confirmed already this has already happened. Unfortunately
a lot of Apple "fan boys" and "evangelists" would like you to believe
that the Mac is inherently by design less susceptable telling you it has
got a Unix core, sure it has but there is a lot of software on top of
that which can make the system more vulnerable. The idea that it is
inherently safer is simply because it has this that or the other is not
true, however tt is true that these attacks are much less prevelant at
the moment on the OS X platform. This is mainly down to market share
and the fact that if you want to write malware you don't specialise in
niches but go for the biggest target you can get which are Windows PCs
at the moment. Now that hacking is becoming less a nerd activity and
making its way onto organised criminal activity it may become attractive
to target Macintosh machines and their operating systems as well in
order to maximise their market, this together with increased market
share (assuming it happens) will mean that in future OS X will not be a
the relatively safe backwater that it is currently unless users wise up
in the same way that many PC users have only just begun to recently.
It may be argued that since Microsoft have been continuously beaten
about the head by various security issues for the last eight to ten
years that actually this aspect of Windows could even have become more
secure than Mac OS X. Certainly if you take Windows VISTA as an
example, Microsoft have really learnt lessons over security and it is
definitely much safer than XP. The problem is that all this improved
security is that it breaks older applications which is why a lot of
people find they don't like VISTA although I know it certainly isn't the
only reason.
Personally I don't run any security software as such on the Mac but what
I do is mainly disable JAVAScript on pages I don't know until I trust
those and at present I don't use iChat which is where a lot of this
stuff is coming from on the Mac platform. I also run a fairly tight
ship on the email front.
As for specific solutions on the Mac I would have to look them up but
there are really only a few companies in the game, there is a Norton AV
for Mac but personally wouldn't go for that but there are only a few
other companies involved but I would have to look them up.
If Apple become more successful, despite what the "zealots" may have you
believe Apple themselves will have to pay as much attention to security
as Microsoft have had to do.
Regards.
Tristram Llewellyn
Technical Support
Sight and Sound Technology
Welton House North Wing, Summerhouse Road, Moulton Park, NN3 6WD
Web : www.sightandsound.co.uk
Email: tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Support: Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Phone:
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Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a company registered in England
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Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a trading subsidiary of 2nd
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