On Apr 7, 2010, at 08:34 , steve harley wrote:
my post wasn't about malware, it was about zero-day exploits, which
are descriptions of exploitable methods that were published before
the "hole" had been patched; some had enough detail to be exploited
by even "dumb" black-hats; i didn't claim any of these had been used
against someone, the point is to show a non-zero level of risk
exists and that many vectors are *not* patched by Apple soon enough
to negate specific risks
Risks are Risks. How many Toyota owners stopped driving their cars
because of the 'risk' that their gas pedal may stick?
i think it's also important to realize, as highlighted by the
prevalence of PDF exploits, and of web-based exploits which work
with any browser, that OS-specific malware and viruses are now in
the minority among all threats; i'm sure Mac users have been victims
of cross-site-scripting and other web-based exploits
I'm sure too. How many? for how long? I suspect maybe a dozen users a
week, and that's without the several programs that most Windows users
have running all the time to try to detect the malware they have
floating around.
even if it were possible to prove "nothing's been exploited yet",
that wouldn't be evidence of security; at best you can say that the
risk on Mac OS X is somewhat less than on Windows; keeping software
up-to-date is worth doing, but it's not a complete security solution
The use of the term 'is somewhat less' is misleading and prejudicial.
How about throwing in 'is miniscule' compared to Windows. And if
compared to Windows running bare and on the internet, that miniscule
risk on a Mac becomes non-existent.
Joseph McAllister
[email protected]
Running Mac OSs since 1984. Only had a worm once, from a floppy, in
the early 1990s. If I had anything else corrupt my system at any time
since, I am blissfully unaware of it, as nothing out of the ordinary
has ever occurred that could not be traced to operator error or
leaving the machine running for several months without re-booting,
which tends to allow little pieces of code to corrupt themselves over
time, either in RAM or on a hard disk. Now I have a little clock that
tells me to restart the machine once a week.
I couldn't remember most of what I know today
if it weren't for others sharing their knowledge
of my past on the Internet. Thank you…
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