Re: [MLUG] Mac moving to Intel

[Vern Green <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

The spyware problem is an issue with Windows and Internet Explorer. IE
used to allow active X controls to be installed freely without warning
the user. This has since been addressed but not completely.

Viruses on the other hand are a completely different animal. The early
viruses took advantage of flaws in Microsoft Outlook Express to
propagate themselves. Now those issues have been fixed, but there are
still a lot of virus attempts out there and a lot of infections

I think spyware and viruses both are being directed at Windows
machines since that is where the payoff is. There are Mac viruses out
there, I had a friend describe a worm that infected his hard drive on
his Mac not too long ago. The Mac user world is ripe for the picking
once the evil eye of the virus developer gets focused on it. Right now
the user base is too small.

These guys write viruses for notoriety, they want to be proud of how
many machines they bring down with their latest masterpiece. Frankly
Apple users are too few in number, but once you get to 25 to 50% of
the market base, that is another story entirely.

Lastly, I think in the past, Microsoft in a trade off for easier use,
made it possible for these issues to become a problem. If they
continue to do what they have been doing in repairing these problems
viruses at least will be harder to infect your machine. When is the
last major worm or virus been reported on Windows? There have been no
major warnings for at least a year now.

At least in the Windows world we are aware of the danger and are
always prepared for it. In the Mac world, people feel they are immuned
to viruses because they are on Mac OS. This is a false sense of
security since the Mac OS is only as secure as the user behind the
keyboard.


On 6/7/05, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> On Tue, 7 Jun 2005, McNutt, Justin M. wrote:
> 
> > We're seeing a lot of Macs sold in IATS because of spyware and security
> > problems on Windows.
> 
> Are Windows' spyware problems caused by a flaw in Windows design, or are
> spyware designers just focusing their efforts on windows?  Sometimes
> Windows problems are caused by Windows' popularity.  If OS X were to
> become as popular as Windows, would it then have the same spyware
> problems, or is OS X designed to prevent such problems?
> 
> Mike
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-- 
Thanks
F Vernon Green

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