It'a all more than I can compute. I just know the world is full of sickos who want to redistribute the wealth no matter what the cost.
Yuck! Harry Monday, December 6, 20045:59 PMJeff @ SLYN Systemsslynsystems1985 at juno.com >Hey Jerry, Bill and Harry, >I'd like to offer just a teeny bit more of food for thought. >Would you agree this is a numbers game? Wouldn't most wackos write a >virus because they want fame, money or to release anger? >With Macs holding 3.2% of the market share, Apple is a smaller target for >fame, money or anger. >http://www.macminute.com/2004/01/15/marketshare >Whatcha thin Babalouie? >If there wasn't a virus threat on the Mac, would people still buy the >Norton Antivirus or Virex for the Mac? Of course, am not saying it's a >signifcan't threat. Just offering another point of view. >All the best, > >Jeff Slyn, Owner >SLYN Systems & Peripherals >(502) 426-5469 >serving Kentuckiana clients 7 days a week since 1985! > > >On Sun, 5 Dec 2004 13:33:09 -0500 Jerry Yeager <jerry at browseryshop.com> >writes: >> >> On Dec 04, 2004, at 11:02 PM, Harry Jacobson-Beyer wrote: >> >> > I've heard hackers don't attack Mac machines because there are so >> few >> > of >> > them (relative to the pcs). If the roles were reversed, ie Macs >> having >> > the major share of the market, wouldn't the hackers be writing >> code to >> > get to them? >> > >> >> What you have heard is one of those urban legend things. Macs on the >> >> 'net are attacked as often as the other OSes. But they are not >> broken >> into as often. >> >> Not too long ago some computer security firms tracked this and found >> >> that the most targeted systems were Linux and Mac OS-X based with >> Windoze based machines actually being the least targeted. Targeted >> here >> means that the attackers are specifically looking to exploit >> weaknesses >> in that type of OS. >> >> BUT, In terms of being broken into, it (usually) goes like this: >> >> 1) Windoze systems (very easy, many home users have been broken into >> >> and do not know that they are their machines are being used to send >> out >> the gobs of spam and viruses that infest the internet.) >> The things that attack Windoze directly as opposed to other systems >> are >> most often looking to either get credit (identity) information >> likely >> stored on the computer or to take the machine over to use as part of >> a >> zombie network. >> >> >> 99) Linux (pretty tough -- you have to find a system running with a >> >> very sloppy sysop that does not keep up on things) >> 100) Mac OS-X (not impossible but very tough, see 99). ) >> >> (Actually, if Macs and Linux systems could be easily broken into, >> they >> would be targeted even more, as these systems may have more vital >> information stored on them). >> >> Jerry >> >> p.s. Even with Windows SP 2, there are known exploits out there to >> break into the systems. You might notice in the article none of the >> >> honey pot systems that had SP 2 running got broken into. Since SP2 >> basically just turns on a firewall, this shows that attackers are >> not >> having to work very hard at all to break into a Windoze machine. >> >> p.p.s The above does not mean that you can blindly skip those >> periodic >> security updates that Apple releases. Keep installing them! | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 25. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>
