Windows more secure than Mac OS

[momoceio]

At least according to famous hacker Marc Maiffret...interesting read.

Marc Maiffret--the quick rise of a teen hacker (Q&A) | InSecurity Complex - CNET News

 

[mbell75]

LMAO

There are over 2k known viruses for Windows
There are ZERO known viruses for the MAC OS

/thread

 

[momoceio]

That really has nothing to do with it...but ok.

 

[mbell75]

That really has nothing to do with it...but ok.

Umm, that has everything to do with it. Why would Apple spend money on tightening up their security when no known viruses exist for their OS? If some start to pop up, you bet they will come out with patches.

 

[momoceio]

Did you even read the article or are you being close minded? There are definitely known viruses for OS X...but again that's really not the point and doesn't prove much.

 

[Nixot]

There was once made a virus for Mac, and there was a huge panic because nobody knew what to do! Lulzyaoy! How do you like that, you DRM-infrested Jobs fanboys?

 

[Fonseca]

No known viruses for the Mac? Interesting.

First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered

2006 they found one, so I think you are about 4 years too late with that argument. But nice try.

 

[IOWA]

Interestimg article. Sometimes I wish I would have gone into programming myself instead of light web dev and design, but that's where I was needed. I still might.

@mbell

I think its funny how macs (and its users) tout its more secure, when its always the first to fall to a hacking contest. Imagine if geohot (creator of blainra1n reds0w) got pissed at apple? There's no doubt in my mind he could devestate the mac platform single handedly. And apple wouldn't know what to do, as they have no real security or measures to fight such a thing.

Also, many people confuse trojans, brutes, viruses, worms, with hacking. Its not the same.

 

[mbell75]

No known viruses for the Mac? Interesting.

First ever virus for Mac OS X discovered

2006 they found one, so I think you are about 4 years too late with that argument. But nice try.

I mean currently

 

[vbetts]

Umm, that has everything to do with it. Why would Apple spend money on tightening up their security when no known viruses exist for their OS? If some start to pop up, you bet they will come out with patches.

1. Viruses are not as common for Mac os X not because it's "stable" or secure, but because it's not targetted as much seeing that windows 9/10 times is used. Plus, you have one virus for one unix system, that same virus can attack all other unix based systems. Android is Linux, and linux is unix, so Android can also be attacked at the core.

 

[mbell75]

1. Viruses are not as common for Mac os X not because it's "stable" or secure, but because it's not targetted as much seeing that windows 9/10 times is used.

Great detective work captain obvious. That has only been brought up like a thousand times every time this subject comes up.

 

[DGalt]

Great detective work captain obvious. That has only been brought up like a thousand times every time this subject comes up.

Unfortunately Mac users continue to ignore this simple truth and instead insist on touting their computers as impervious to viruses while at the same time mocking Windows machines as nothing but virus-laden monstrosities.

 

[momoceio]

I've been running my Desktop without anti-virus software for quite awhile and have not been infected. I can happily say I've never once been infected on any of my Windows PCs.

 

[mbell75]

Unfortunately Mac users continue to ignore this simple truth and instead insist on touting their computers as impervious to viruses while at the same time mocking Windows machines as nothing but virus-laden monstrosities.

Sorry, but most Mac users know from experience. Did you know that over 60% of Mac users are former Windows users? Myself included. Why would they feel the need to pay twice as much for the same hardware running a different OS? Most were tired of crashes and viruses. Well in my case, I got sick of viruses, spyware, drivers not installing new programs right and switched.

I had an HP with all the up to date virus, spyware and all that other protection crap they sell you on my computer. Hard drive crashed. Paid Best Buy around $400 total to get everything off my old drive, put in a new hard drive and reinstall Windows on it. 3 months later, it crashed again and rather than pay another $400, I decided to give Macs a shot. 3 years late doing all the same things I did with my PC and zero problems. I think I have had to restart it twice because it locked up, that's it. Every program installs flawlessly and I don't have to keep virus, spyware and all that crap up to date and then pay for it too. Best decision I have ever made.

 

[momoceio]

Sorry, but most Mac users know from experience. Did you know that over 60% of Mac users are former Windows users? Myself included. Why would they feel the need to pay twice as much for the same hardware running a different OS? Most were tired of crashes and viruses. Well in my case, I got sick of viruses, spyware, drivers not installing new programs right and switched.

I had an HP with all the up to date virus, spyware and all that other protection crap they sell you on my computer. Hard drive crashed. Paid Best Buy around $400 total to get everything off my old drive, put in a new hard drive and reinstall Windows on it. 3 months later, it crashed again and rather than pay another $400, I decided to give Macs a shot. 3 years late doing all the same things I did with my PC and zero problems. I think I have had to restart it twice because it locked up, that's it. Every program installs flawlessly and I don't have to keep virus, spyware and all that crap up to date and then pay for it too. Best decision I have ever made.

Hard drive crashes have nothing to do with the OS.

 

[sooper_droid12]

This thread is hilarious, especially watching mbell75 come up with argument FAIL one after another. mbell75, you obviously had a bitter experience with PC which is why you're so blinded by your bias. You should really read the article before you speak. The points that you invalidate are the exact reasons why the growing Apple community should be concerned. The fanboy's naivety is really creating an environment ripe for the hacking. You need only look at how quickly Apple platforms are hacked to be truly concerned. And as far as crashes are concerned, I think you've been educated on that, but personally, I've had 3 PCs now, all of them still work fine. I bought my wife a Macbook because she's a chick and would enjoy the ease of use. Of our four computers, guess which one crashed first? The Mac. Unrecoverable HDD. While Apple was taking their sweet time fixing it, guess what she was using in the meantime? My PC. Incidentally, here are the related quotes from the article so you can educate yourself a bit:

And you think Apple is taking it seriously too now?
Maiffret: Oh yeah. It's even a little scarier with them because they try to market themselves as more secure than the PC, that you don't have to worry about viruses, etc. Anytime there's been a hacking contest, within a few hours someone's found a new Apple vulnerability. If they were taking it seriously, they wouldn't claim to be more secure than Microsoft because they are very much not. And the Apple community is pretty ignorant to the risks that are out there as it relates to Apple. The reason we don't see more attacks out there compared to Microsoft is because their market share isn't near what Microsoft's is.

Are they on par as far as code?
Maiffret: I think Microsoft does a better job with their code auditing than folks like Apple do. We've only seen a scratching of the surface as far as Apple vulnerabilities because nobody cares to find them. There's nothing inherent with Apple themselves and their development. The only reason Apple gets little increase in security is because they're running on top of a Unix-based operating system and they can take advantage of some of the things that have been done for them.

 

[The_Gnome_]

mbell75 makes me sad to be a mac user.

We're not ALL deluded, blind faith fanboys.

 

[DGalt]

as others have said, hardware failure =/= OS failure

I've had nothing but windows machines since I started using computers. The Sony Vaio that I had in middle school (windows 98) still runs just fine (of course it's slow in comparison to today's hardware, but the thing is about 15 years old). My 4 year old toshiba laptop (windows xp) runs flawlessly. And the desktop I just built over the summer (windows 7) is just a joy to use.

I just find it amusing that OS X is not what keeps Apple computers safe but rather the relative unimportance of OS X in the greater scheme of things. This of course contrasts, again, with what most mac users will shout at the top of their lungs.

*shrug* Apple = overpriced, underpowered toys as far as I'm concerned.

 

[mbell75]

Hard drive crashes have nothing to do with the OS.

So wrong it's not even funny. If that were true, how come I as well as many others have never had a hard drive crash after switching to a Mac. If you are not aware a nasty Trojan can indeed crash a hard drive, I don't know what to tell you.

Oh, and just because ONE guy says Windows is more secure doesn't make it true either

 

[Fonseca]

I mean currently

Umm, that has everything to do with it. Why would Apple spend money on tightening up their security when no known viruses exist for their OS? If some start to pop up, you bet they will come out with patches.

Really? This forum needs a facepalm smiley.

You can believe what you want about security, but it isn't just one guy saying this. Do some research into the hacking community. Or do a search for 15 minute Safari hack. The stuff is out there, you just do not want to think so.


I mean, it is the typical fanboy response. You overpay for a device, and now have to convince everyone on an internet forum that you were not foolish in paying so much. So, now you become a person who takes offense to anything written negatively about your product/company. I find it rather silly. As for thinking that operating systems cause hardware failures? I just have to laugh.

 

[vbetts]

Great detective work captain obvious. That has only been brought up like a thousand times every time this subject comes up.

I love how everytime someone has an argument to your claims, you responde back by trolling and flaming. Very grown up, but there is a reason that this has been said over and over because it is the truth, and sometimes to get the point acrossed you need to repeat yourself sometimes. I hate to repeat myself, so please don't make me or anyone else in this thread do so troll.

So wrong it's not even funny. If that were true, how come I as well as many others have never had a hard drive crash after switching to a Mac. If you are not aware a nasty Trojan can indeed crash a hard drive, I don't know what to tell you.

Oh, and just because ONE guy says Windows is more secure doesn't make it true either

Hard drive crashes don't have anything to do with the OS. Hard drives are controlled onboard by itself, and then also controlled by the motherboard. Trojans cannot crash a hard drive, they can easily corrupt a system but they can't destroy a hard drive unless it attacks the bios of the systems, which trojans don't. More extensive viruses that attack the bios and system can, but normal viruses can't. Or in some cases, take Nvidia and their older drivers that came out about a month or so ago, the driver can be bugged and have say no thermal control for the g92 chips. But that's still not the OS, that's the drivers. Boohoo.

And also, one or two guys saying that mac is more secure doesn't make it true as well. You see, it's a double standard you did there bad argument. Come up with something else other than cop outs next time. But no, Windows is not secure at all. Windows is probably the easiest target, but actual holes in the system that you can get in without needing any tools, Mac always are the first one's reported. And as I said, Windows is not secure. That's why there are virus scanners and malware detectors.

 

[IOWA]

How about this little statistic then, in hacking contests, mac are ALWAYS the FIRST to fall. And hard drive crashes cannot be caused by virus's/trojans

 

[DGalt]

So wrong it's not even funny. If that were true, how come I as well as many others have never had a hard drive crash after switching to a Mac. If you are not aware a nasty Trojan can indeed crash a hard drive, I don't know what to tell you.

Oh, and just because ONE guy says Windows is more secure doesn't make it true either

yay for logical fallacies!

oh, by the way, I can name about half a dozen people I know who have macs that had their hard drives fail.

 

[momoceio]

Well, I can tell you this much. At my last job I was a sys admin for around 700 Windows PCs and 22 macs...guess where 90% of the issues came from? In one years time I had to have 2 DVD drives, 1 hard drive and 1 motherboard replaced out of 22 mac minis. The teacher in charge of this lab was a mac user and supposedly knew a lot about Macs (like most mac users claim) but when it came down to it I had to figure out all the stupid issues we had. Even our support from Apple couldn't figure out half the issues. Instead, I (the "Windows" guy) had to figure out all of the issues by myself. I really had no problem with Apple until I started supporting their products...big piles of shit. Even our Mac Books pros at my current employer blow, almost everyone that has one has needed to have their batteries replaced 3 times within a 3 year period due to them crapping out or swelling causing the bottom of the laptop to bow out.

 

[Pryomancer]

If the hackers all have a skillset in Windows hacking, and something like 80% of the market is Windows, why bother with Macs?
You can continue to try and convince us to switch to Mac. If we do, maybe the hackers will notice that Mac is suddenly worth hacking, and it's easy since Windows has good defences now, whereas Mac users apparently don't even bother with anti-malware programs.
Thus, Apple loses its reputation, goes under, and we have a party.