Are Macs less secure than PCs?

[Nomen Nescio]

"It’s a common belief that Macs are more secure than personal computers
using Microsoft’s Windows. But a new study comparing the number of
flaws in Apple’s and Microsoft’s operating systems suggests that the
opposite might be true..."

Wall Street Journal: http://easyurl.net/MacSecurity

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

A Mac 'is' a PC. What you should be asking is, 'Is Mac OS X less secure than
Windows?' Personally, no more, no less than Windows. Security is a constant
force in todays world and operating systems no matter the brand will always
be susceptible attack thats why you have folks working on them to constantly
keep them updated with maintenance updates to stay one step ahead. Recent
studies have shown that Microsoft has done a better job than Apple at
patching their systems.

 

[gimme_this_gimme_that]

Uh huh.

"A new study" paid for by M$ to say whatever M$ want's it to say by a
security consulting company M$ owns released a few days before
Christmas.

 

[eatfastnoodle]

"It's a common belief that Macs are more secure than personal computers
using Microsoft's Windows. But a new study comparing the number of
flaws in Apple's and Microsoft's operating systems suggests that the
opposite might be true..."

Wall Street Journal:http://easyurl.net/MacSecurity

It doesn't matter which OS is inherently secure, OS X is simply not
targeted as often, "security by obscurity" is an big advantage for
Mac.

 

[Michael Jennings]

The Principle Of Least Authority is an attempt to banish that, "will always
be susceptible to attack;" there is actually a glimmer of hope - here:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2003/HPL-2003-191.html
If you're interested enough to view Dr. Karp's Google talk, that's here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7179100659758053865

 

[George Graves]

It doesn't matter which OS is inherently secure, OS X is simply not
targeted as often, "security by obscurity" is an big advantage for
Mac.

Security by obscurity has been shown to be a myth. Apple's security is mostly
a result of the fact that most virus infections require root access and in
spite of any vulnerabilities, it's hard to get past that particular sentinel.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

The last time I checked, operating systems are designed and developed by
humans and the same people who try to infiltrate them are called humans too.
Regardless of how sophisticated protections in systems become, there will
always be someone curious enough to find a way in. There are lot of things
to take into account too, its not just the hacker in some foreign country
hacking into your PC thousands of miles away or someone downloading malware
onto their PC, but basic things like stealing a laptop thats not password
protected or data not encrypted. How do we get around these things I ask?
Operating Systems and Security encompasse a lot of things, the Internet, the
Local Network and so on.

 

[PC Guy]

Security by obscurity has been shown to be a myth.

It has? Where?

Apple's security is mostly a result of the fact that most virus infections
require root access and in
spite of any vulnerabilities, it's hard to get past that particular
sentinel.

George. Best not to speak about thing you no nothing about. You've proven
yourself clueless when it comes to how computers work. Stop embarassing
yourself with these stupid statements.

 

[Elijah Baley]

"It’s a common belief that Macs are more secure than personal computers
using Microsoft’s Windows. But a new study comparing the number of
flaws in Apple’s and Microsoft’s operating systems suggests that the
opposite might be true..."

Wall Street Journal: http://easyurl.net/MacSecurity

The U.S. Army appears to disagree with your assessment. The Army is now
moving to Macs because of all the trouble they've had this year with
security.

http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2007/12/20/apple-army-hackers-tech-
security-cx_ag_1221army.html

From the article...

"Wallington, a division chief in the Army's office of enterprise
information systems, says the military is quietly working to integrate
Macintosh computers into its systems to make them harder to hack."

It's pretty funny how easily Windows trolls can be bitch slapped these
days.

 

[Gene Abner]

macs suck

Security by obscurity has been shown to be a myth. Apple's security is
mostly
a result of the fact that most virus infections require root access and in
spite of any vulnerabilities, it's hard to get past that particular
sentinel.

 

[zara]

It has? Where?


George. Best not to speak about thing you no nothing about. You've proven
yourself clueless when it comes to how computers work. Stop embarassing
yourself with these stupid statements.

Just so you know, George knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. In his own
little mind anyway.

 

[DCA]

It has? Where?


George. Best not to speak about thing you no nothing about. You've proven
yourself clueless when it comes to how computers work.

He has? Where?

DCA

 

[PC Guy]

The U.S. Army appears to disagree with your assessment. The Army is now
moving to Macs because of all the trouble they've had this year with
security.

http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2007/12/20/apple-army-hackers-tech-
security-cx_ag_1221army.html

From the article...

"Wallington, a division chief in the Army's office of enterprise
information systems, says the military is quietly working to integrate
Macintosh computers into its systems to make them harder to hack."

From the article...

"That's because fewer attacks have been designed to infiltrate Mac
computers, and adding more Macs to the military's computer mix makes it
tougher to destabilize a group of military computers with a single attack,
Wallington says."

The move isn't because Macs are more secure but because they want to reduce
the monoculture. It's pretty funny how easily Mactards remain bitch
slappable to this day.

 

[PC Guy]

He has? Where?

Pretty much every time he posts.

 

[Saucy]

< chop > Recent studies have shown that Microsoft has done a better job
than Apple at patching their systems.

Microsoft is about five to ten years ahead of Apple in patching. Apple
hasn't had any pressing need to discover and patch vulnerabilities because
the Apple OSes have never really come under serious attack until these past
few months. Now with increasing market share attention of the hackers is
being drawn to the Apple OSes and all the holes are showing up. Expect the
Apple OSes to have significantly higher vulnerability discovery rate than
the Windows OSes for quite some time to come.

Saucy

 

[Mayor Of R'lyeh]

The U.S. Army appears to disagree with your assessment. The Army is now
moving to Macs because of all the trouble they've had this year with
security.

http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2007/12/20/apple-army-hackers-t...
security-cx_ag_1221army.html

From the article...

"Wallington, a division chief in the Army's office of enterprise
information systems, says the military is quietly working to integrate
Macintosh computers into its systems to make them harder to hack."

It's pretty funny how easily Windows trolls can be bitch slapped these
days.

LOL! You might want to read the whole article before you start
crowing. They're getting Macs because they hired a former Apple
employee to run the program. I'm sure he's totally unbiased. *eyeroll*
Bitchslap basck at ya! 8)

 

[Saucy]

It doesn't matter which OS is inherently secure, OS X is simply not
targeted as often, "security by obscurity" is an big advantage for
Mac.

Security by obscurity has been the Apple security strategy for some time
now. Unfortunately, with Best Buy and many other big box stores pushing
Apple computer, the Apple OS is not longer so obscure. Apple is years behind
Microsoft security-wise and this will become painfully apparent for Apple
computer users running Apple OSes if Apple computer sales continue at the
higher rates.

Saucy

 

[Mayor Of R'lyeh]

Uh huh.

"A new study" paid for by M$ to say whatever M$ want's it to say by a
security consulting company M$ owns released a few days before
Christmas.

I wasn't aware that Microsoft owned ZDNet. You have some kind of
documentation for this, I presume?

 

[gimme_this_gimme_that]

That ZDNet is owned by M$ may or may not be factually true, but
certainly it is contextually true.

Siths at the evil empire have been mind controlling ZDNet for years.

(It's not that much different than how the Jedi at Apple have been
mind controlling PCWorld.)

It's well documented that ZDNet is filled with M$ shills:

See http://www.roughlydrafted.com and search for ZDNet.

 

[PC Guy]

Security by obscurity has been the Apple security strategy for some
time now. Unfortunately, with Best Buy and many other big box stores
pushing Apple computer, the Apple OS is not longer so obscure. Apple is
years behind Microsoft security-wise and this will become painfully
apparent for Apple computer users running Apple OSes if Apple computer
sales continue at the higher rates.

Apple's security is no better or worse than Microsoft's. The two are
essentially the same.