Capital Furs

I'm putting this in Soapbox because I could easily see this getting out of hand and become a debate.

Please don't take this reply as an attack on Macs.  I like Macs.  They're built off Unix, which I like a lot.  I usually bring up the shell on those computers and just run everything from there.  The user interface is pretty and the whole computer is easy to use, with most applications running very well and smoothly.  It's more efficient as an OS, and now has the ability to run XP on top of it for more specific needs.

But with that out of the way; be very careful with them.  Especially if you're going to be running Firefox.  It's important to realise that Macs are NOT as secure as they once were.  Mac is starting to suffer from the same problems windows had and learned to deal with.  It's still mostly safe against viruses and certain trojans (unless the user himself plays a role in the installation of it, the best virus is the user himself), but it is easy as HELL to hack.

Thankfully people aren't prone to do hack Macs.  They're just not a common target.  But just to be safe, it is usually recommended to continue using Safari, or even better Chrome.

http://www.osnews.com/story/21171/Mille ... _Economics

There are also a whole lot more serious vulnerabilities in Macs. That's normal though, since they haven't been making popular operating systems as long as Microsoft has.  Microsoft is just more used to dealing with hackers trying to break their system.

Pooshie wrote:Thankfully people aren't prone to do hack Macs.  They're just not a common target.  But just to be safe, it is usually recommended to continue using Safari, or even better Chrome.

There are also a whole lot more serious vulnerabilities in Macs. That's normal though, since they haven't been making popular operating systems as long as Microsoft has.  Microsoft is just more used to dealing with hackers trying to break their system.

Now more just a sub-point, now as a mac user I do see and read a lot of this, now I'm not disagreeing with anything said above. In fact I am agreeing. I'm just saying no matter what system your on you need to be informed and watchful. If you just monitor what your doing you can avoid a lot of hurt. Now I haven't experienced any exploits and such not just cause I use a mac, but by being cautious.

AND as a second sub-point... kinda aimed at pooshie as an info point... there is no Chrome for mac yet, they're working on it though. PLUS for any windows users out there, Safari is available for Windows. As a fairly secure browser you can use as there aren't as many exploits for it as there are IE.

Link to safari for ANYONE who wants to try it out:
http://www.apple.com/ca/safari/download/

NO!  Safari on windows isn't quite as bad as Firefox on Mac, but it's still pretty terrible.

Also, you're right, I didn't know there wasn't a Chrome for Mac.  Sorry :3

And finally, the thing is that a lot of Mac users think they're immune, and therefore don't monitor themselves.  Worst; Art students own macs (I'm being a dick.  I mean people who aren't familiar with technology).  And they might not know what it means to be hacked, and not know how to defend themselves.  And some might buy Macs thinking they won't have to deal with that sort of stuff.

The irony is that I bet IE is now safer than Firefox what with everyone switching to Firefox.

If you were a hacker, would you code to exploit a program nobody uses anymore because of its security, or work against the program everyone switched to? :P

Most of the crap you can get you get by social engineering anyway.  It's not that you visit a website and you get a virus, you go to a site, see something to click on that's like 'HOLY SHIT YOU WIN! CLICK! :D' which is actually going to give the command to the OS's security system to basicly said 'Nah, he said it's cool to install me man  Lemme in! :D' and uses that to get installed onto the system.

While it's not always true, in general terms, any virus or malware will require user input to be installed.  So the user is still the one that went 'That sounds like a good idea'.

But then agian, AntiVirus2009 DOES almost look ligit, doesn't it?

Now, I don't use anti-virus stuff, but rarely get viruses or malware, however, it's still happened.  But when it does, I notice within the first hour of it asserting itself.  'Oh, hey, wait, that ain't right... Oh god damnit.'  What I don't get is how end users manage to totally RAPE their machines with shit but it takes them forever to realize that something is even wrong.

Meer wrote:The irony is that I bet IE is now safer than Firefox what with everyone switching to Firefox.

IE still holds the majority of users, and according to secunia, firefox has one outstanding, unpatched hole, and IE6 has 22, IE7 at 9.  I'd say firefox is still a better bet than IE.

On a side note, safari for mac and for windows have one unpatched hole each.

http://secunia.com/advisories/product/19089/
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/11/
http://secunia.com/advisories/product/12366/

HOW DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE you say that about that thing. OH MY GOOOOOOD

WHYYY
WHYYYYYY

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Wait.... what are we talking about....

-Viper

tecywiz121 wrote:IE still holds the majority of users, and according to secunia, firefox has one outstanding, unpatched hole, and IE6 has 22, IE7 at 9.  I'd say firefox is still a better bet than IE.

On a side note, safari for mac and for windows have one unpatched hole each.

And what about IE8.... oh IE8....hahaha...

BUT see pooshie, Safari for windows is basically a carbon copy of the mac version... allbeit, a bit slow and kinda wonky.

That's the problem Lex.  It wasn't coded for windows and it's own vulnerabilities.  What good does it do to fix a hole in Mac that doesn't exist in Windows?  They both have VERY different vulnerabilities.

Also to Ashes; We're not really talking about viruses here.  But Macs do have a concept of file ownership, making it harder to create general viruses for it.  Even if they ARE socially engineered.

Pooshie wrote:Also to Ashes; We're not really talking about viruses here.  But Macs do have a concept of file ownership, making it harder to create general viruses for it.  Even if they ARE socially engineered.

When you're talking about OS exploits, you are talking about malware and viruses.  End user computers are extreamly rarely 'hacked' by someone sitting across the internet, directly typing into the console and 'getting in'.  That's inefficent and most end users don't have anything that anyone wants.  The exploits are automated into malware and viruses, then you build yourself a botnet, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_botnet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet ) and THEN you have something that you can rage war on the internet with.  ...And make LOTS of money renting the fucker out.  Stuff like THIS is why that guys Mac hack could earn well over $50 000 from the right bidder.