5 ms·

I hear this enough to wonder if it's a myth. Mac OS is built on Unix, so how does the total Unix+Linux+Mac market share look? Probably big enough to justify att

by b_emery 16y ago

I hear this enough to wonder if it's a myth. Mac OS is built on Unix, so how does the total Unix+Linux+Mac market share look? Probably big enough to justify attacking. I suspect but can't prove that Unix is inherently more secure than Windows (or more easily secured). I've actually had a Mac compromised before after being lazy about the password setup. I suspect it difficult for the botnets to get traction, but they're certainly trying.

Tamerlin 16y ago
It's not actually a myth. There aren't very many UNIX-based operating systems in the hands of the average user, who is the prime target, since the users are the biggest vulnerability in any system. UNIX isn't inherently secure to begin with, in fact initially security for UNIX was an afterthought. It wasn't until it started gaining widespread use that the UNIX developers started taking security seriously. I went through the transition from having encrypted passwords in the /etc/passwords file, which everyone could read (or no one could log in) to /etc/shadow as security started becoming important. That said, there was a virus around 8 years ago that specifically targeted a bunch of NCSA UNIX machines, and they ended up getting caught with their pants down -- there WAS a fix already available that would have blocked the virus, but the NCSA admins hadn't been diligent about installing it.
wmf 16y ago
It's only fair to count Unix+Linux+Mac as one market if a single exploit could work on all of them, which I doubt.
g_lined 16y ago
I have a tendency to agree with you. For viruses, the numbers don't add up. I couldn't find numbers for how many viruses/worms were written last year. In 2004 there were around 28000 written, so let's assume viruses are on the decline and say 8000 were written last year. With a 5% share, Apple should have anything up to 400 viruses. I am aware of none. I think the reason for this is two fold, firstly, to write a viruses on the Mac, which by their nature need to spread, is harder due to the (*nix) security models used. But also, it seems to me viruses are getting passé and targeted emails with trojans are becoming more popular. Trojans are one thing that Macs have been shown to be susceptible to although often by fooling (social engineering) the person into clicking all the right buttons and typing in their password. I would therefore suggest that any future major problems on OS X will be due to a trojan that gets sent out and manages to auto install through an exploit rather than a virus which does the spreading on its own. The challenge for Apple is being good enough, fast enough to make sure trojan attacks are relegated to social engineering and tainted pirate downloads.

by b_emery 16y ago

Tamerlin 16y ago

It's not actually a myth. There aren't very many UNIX-based operating systems in the hands of the average user, who is the prime target, since the users are the biggest vulnerability in any system. UNIX isn't inherently secure to begin with, in fact initially security for UNIX was an afterthought. It wasn't until it started gaining widespread use that the UNIX developers started taking security seriously. I went through the transition from having encrypted passwords in the /etc/passwords file, which everyone could read (or no one could log in) to /etc/shadow as security started becoming important. That said, there was a virus around 8 years ago that specifically targeted a bunch of NCSA UNIX machines, and they ended up getting caught with their pants down -- there WAS a fix already available that would have blocked the virus, but the NCSA admins hadn't been diligent about installing it.

wmf 16y ago

It's only fair to count Unix+Linux+Mac as one market if a single exploit could work on all of them, which I doubt.

g_lined 16y ago

I have a tendency to agree with you. For viruses, the numbers don't add up. I couldn't find numbers for how many viruses/worms were written last year. In 2004 there were around 28000 written, so let's assume viruses are on the decline and say 8000 were written last year. With a 5% share, Apple should have anything up to 400 viruses. I am aware of none. I think the reason for this is two fold, firstly, to write a viruses on the Mac, which by their nature need to spread, is harder due to the (*nix) security models used. But also, it seems to me viruses are getting passé and targeted emails with trojans are becoming more popular. Trojans are one thing that Macs have been shown to be susceptible to although often by fooling (social engineering) the person into clicking all the right buttons and typing in their password. I would therefore suggest that any future major problems on OS X will be due to a trojan that gets sent out and manages to auto install through an exploit rather than a virus which does the spreading on its own. The challenge for Apple is being good enough, fast enough to make sure trojan attacks are relegated to social engineering and tainted pirate downloads.