[X4U] FW: What's the reason for your misleading CNN piece on Macvulnerabilities?

[Earle Jones]

On Oct 23, 2006, at 12:42 PM, P. H. Adams wrote:

>
> On Monday, October 23, 2006, at 09:42AM, Mark Phillips  
> <mark at mophilly.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Oct 22, 2006, at 4:08 PM, Michael Elliott wrote:
>>
>>> I thought the same things when I logged into CNN.com yesterday :-)
>>> This whole "market share is what keeps Macs from having so many
>>> viruses" thing is so wrong.
>>
>> That is arguable. However, consider the leader lines...
>>
>> Page One:
>>
>> 	"Mac attacks rare but rising"
>>

*
Greetings!

Two thoughts:

1.  A good friend of mine is a high-powered senior consultant in the  
field of computer security.  He advises both corporations and  
government agencies in this field.  He comes at it from a very  
technical angle and has a PhD from Harvard in Engineering/Computer  
Science.  I asked him whether the lack of Mac viruses is because of  
the low market share, or is Mac truly a more secure machine than the  
PC.  My friend's opinion is that it is some of each.  True, the old- 
fashioned hacker wants to make a big splash and might avoid the Mac  
for that reason.  But it is also true that the Microsoft approach to  
OS design is leaky -- it has always been and probably always will  
be.  Mac, especially since Sys X with its UNIX kernel, is basically  
designed from the bottom up for security.  UNIX was developed by Bell  
Labs for what were called 'minicomputers' -- these were substantial  
sized machines that were designed to support multiple users.  The  
claim to fame of the UNIX approach was this:  It would allow very  
easy access to a user for his own information, but deny access to  
others at the same time.  Food for thought.

2.  I have been a fan of Apple computer since I gave my daughter an  
Apple][ in 1980 for her 12th birthday (she is now 38!)  My company  
got its first Mac in '84 and I have lived with them since, owning  
probably a half-dozen different models.  I have some experience with  
PC systems also.  In using Apple products since 1980, I have detected  
(to my knowledge) only one virus.  And this is one I loaded myself to  
test some Symantec virus detection programs.  I had a copy of the old  
WDEF virus on a floppy, which the Norton program detected rather easily.

Apple has chosen not to push this Mac advantage very hard in their  
advertising.  I'm not sure why, but perhaps they do not want to  
attract the more vigorous hackers.

Regards,

earle
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