Virus on a PC!

[glosterseagul]

This was in the Wall St. Journal today. Couldn't find a copy of the article online, so here are a few key paragraphs for you guys to peruse =):

- By Walter S Mossberg

... The single most effective way to avoid viruses and spyware is to simply chuck Windows altogether and buy an Apple Macintosh. Apple's operating system, Mac OS X, is harder for the criminals to infect, and the Mac's market share is so small that hackers, virus writers, and spies get little thrill, financial gain or publicity from attacking the platform.

There has never been a successful virus written for Mac OS X, and there is almost no spyware that targets the Mac. Plus, the Mac is invulnerable to viruses and spyware written for Windows. Not only is it more secure, but the Mac operating system is more capable, more modern and more attractive than Windows XP, and just as stable.

Macs are as good as, and often better than, Windows PCs at doing the most common computing tasks, Web browsing, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, photos, music and video. The Mac version of Microsoft office can handle Windows Office files with ease, and it produced files that Office for Windows handles effortlessly. Apple's computers are also gorgeous....




oops I thought I had better not start another mac thread...too late...don't worry myob it will fade!

 

[Marc]

My WindowsXP machine has been running perfectly well for over a year now without any major even slight hiccups.
I like it, it works for me, 'nuff said!

 

[Westdene Seagull]

There has never been a successful virus written for Mac OS X,

Errr just not true - here's some for starters ( not all attack OS X but most do ).

Mabutu-A, see W32/Mabutu-A
Mac.Moothie.A, see W32/Moothie-KIT
Mac.Simpson, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac.Simpsons, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac/Amphimix-A
Mac/ANTI-A
Mac/Autostart-A
Mac/Autostart-B
Mac/Autostart-C
Mac/Autostart-D
Mac/CDEF
Mac/CODE-1
Mac/CODE-252
Mac/CODE-9811
Mac/INIT-1984
Mac/INIT-29
Mac/INIT-9403
Mac/INIT-M
Mac/MBDF-A
Mac/MBDF-B
Mac/MDEF-A
Mac/nVIR-A
Mac/nVIR-B
Mac/nVIR-Fam
Mac/Scores
Mac/SevenD-C
Mac/SevenD-D
Mac/SevenD-Fam
Mac/Sevendust-A
Mac/Sevendust-B
Mac/Sevendust-J
Mac/Simpsons@mm, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac/T4
Mac/WDEF
Mac/ZUC-A
Macaka-A, see Troj/Macaka-A
Macdwarf-A, see Bat/Macdwarf-A
MacOS/MW2004, see AplS/Fromr-A

 

[US Seagull]

 

[Eddie the Seagull]

Re: Re: Virus on a PC!

Errr just not true - here's some for starters ( not all attack OS X but most do ).

Mabutu-A, see W32/Mabutu-A
Mac.Moothie.A, see W32/Moothie-KIT
Mac.Simpson, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac.Simpsons, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac/Amphimix-A
Mac/ANTI-A
Mac/Autostart-A
Mac/Autostart-B
Mac/Autostart-C
Mac/Autostart-D
Mac/CDEF
Mac/CODE-1
Mac/CODE-252
Mac/CODE-9811
Mac/INIT-1984
Mac/INIT-29
Mac/INIT-9403
Mac/INIT-M
Mac/MBDF-A
Mac/MBDF-B
Mac/MDEF-A
Mac/nVIR-A
Mac/nVIR-B
Mac/nVIR-Fam
Mac/Scores
Mac/SevenD-C
Mac/SevenD-D
Mac/SevenD-Fam
Mac/Sevendust-A
Mac/Sevendust-B
Mac/Sevendust-J
Mac/Simpsons@mm, see AplS/Simpsons-A
Mac/T4
Mac/WDEF
Mac/ZUC-A
Macaka-A, see Troj/Macaka-A
Macdwarf-A, see Bat/Macdwarf-A
MacOS/MW2004, see AplS/Fromr-A

Well that seems to have pissed on your fire Gloster!

The only O/S NEVER to have had a virus is IBM's AS/400. I operated one from 1989 to 1994.

 

[Hiney]

Some of the beads on my abacus split once.

 

[glosterseagul]

Re: Re: Re: Virus on a PC!

Well that seems to have pissed on your fire Gloster!

The only O/S NEVER to have had a virus is IBM's AS/400. I operated one from 1989 to 1994.

err yes but...they are not viruses...there just little sniffles..and as there are not too many macs around the sniffle won't spread....

 

[US Seagull]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Virus on a PC!

err yes but...they are not viruses...there just little sniffles..and as there are not too many macs around the sniffle won't spread....

Did you ever wonder why there are so few Macs around?

Macs - pay more, do less.

 

[Cian]

The first AV software I ever used was Virex. For, wait for it, wait for it:

MacOS 6

I have never got a virus on Windows, and BeOS only has one virus anyway.

 

[Everest]

Bugger this. I'm going back to my trusty old ZX Spectrum + (with full size keyboard). Who's gonna attack that?

 

[Biscuit]

Is that by Walter S Mossberg, Apple Macintosh CEO

 

[glosterseagul]

Is that by Walter S Mossberg, Apple Macintosh CEO

PS. From a Mac tech site............He has no idea what he's talking about. None attack OS X. None. Zilch. Zero. Zip.

 

[Cian]

PS. From a Mac tech site............He has no idea what he's talking about. None attack OS X. None. Zilch. Zero. Zip.

OSX not only has a large number of native viruses, it is affected by viruses that attack FreeBSD/PPC and any pan-UNIX virus. Hence it actually has more current, active viruses than, say, Windows 98.

UNIX, and even OSX itself, being a common server OS a FECK LOAD of data-eating network-transmitting worms exist for it.

 

[Yorkie]

Gloster the man with a Mac (dirty or otherwise )

 

[Cian]

I'd just like to reemphasise here - I own a *number* of Macintosh machines. From 68K's to Classic PPC's to a X.0 powered iMac.

Hence my hatred is not as biased as a solely Windows or solely x86 user.

And because I use "real" PC's, I have significantly more knowledge of the real world of computing than a closeted Mac user.

 

[glosterseagul]

who me?

 

[Snowy]

You know what Macintosh stands for?

Most
Applications
Crash
If
Not
The
Operating
System
Hangs

nuff said!

 

[Cian]

You know what Macintosh stands for?

Most
Applications
Crash
If
Not
The
Operating
System
Hangs

nuff said!

Except the user doesn't think its "Bad" to hang, as they get a smily mac face, which they think is "cute"

And yes, MacOS apps, particularly Classic ones, are terribly likely to lock the entire machine, needing a Ctrl-Alt-Power.

 

[glosterseagul]

I'd just like to reemphasise here - I own a *number* of Macintosh machines. From 68K's to Classic PPC's to a X.0 powered iMac.

Hence my hatred is not as biased as a solely Windows or solely x86 user.

And because I use "real" PC's, I have significantly more knowledge of the real world of computing than a closeted Mac user.

Tthere are no viruses for Mac OS X!

There are EXPLOITS, which are not the same thing. It most certainly does NOT have more viruses then Windows98.

There are only 6 known viruses for BSD. There hasn't been a new one since 2002. The amount of UNIX based viruses ever captured and identified most certainly does not add up to the amount in existance for Windows.

Again, there are no Mac OS X viruses. You have no idea what you are talking about.

So, where are these "FreeBSD/PPC and pan-UNIX" virus programs? There was the Morris worm in 1988 (yes, 1988, and it only affected two computer models running long-dead versions of finger and sendmail), but since then things have been pretty quiet.

Do you actually understand what a virus is? The "pan-UNIX" remark betrays a profound ignorance of the broad diversity of software installed on Unix and Unix-like systems, and an equally profound ignorance of the actual levels at which the various Unix-like systems interoperate.

More current, active viruses than, say, Windows 98?

Okay. All you have to do is name one virus that works on current Unix systems.

(Hint: yes, vulnerabities have been identified in various Unix-like systems and applications that run on them over the years, and some have even been exploited to gain superuser access to specific operating-system/hardware combinations, but none of those things is a virus or worm.)

I think the best way to put it is there are almost no known virsus for OSX.

Because there are none really known that does not mean that they are none out there or never will be...Certainly there will be some one day.. but they will pale in comparison to the plethora of Windows viruses.

 

[Cian]

I notice you go from "no" to "almost no" in that passage

Also, the thousand odd MacOS Classic viruses probably still run in OSX's classic emulator. I'd prefer not to nuke any Classic programmes on the iMac so I'm not going to try.

No OS is totally secure. OSX is no better than Windows in that regard.