Apple is safe..., i repeat, apple is safe...

found this abstract from Saints2.0 blog...

apple - wormed?
Friday, August 10, 2007

August 3, 2007
How The iPhone Was Cracked
By Sean Michael Kerner

Here's the juice from the article:

"There is a prevailing belief is that Apple is more secure than Windows," Miller said.

But in his view, that belief is misplaced. He said the same reasons why Macs are cool are the same reasons why they are so easy to hack.

"Macs are easy to hack because they are easy to use," Miller said. "To enable them to be friendly they have a lot of setuid root programs."

Additionally Macs have very good crash reporting which makes attacking them even easier than Windows.

source : Internetnews.com. Click here to read the full article.

Actually, Macs are safe.

Here's the reasons...

-UNIX: most hackers are often unsure of hacking UNIX. this could be why Apple has been so safe these few years.

-Small penetration: There could have been a virus spreading silently these few years, and nobody would have known, considering there's only 22million OS X users, compared to [almost] 1 billion Windows users (Pirated copies considered)

-Mentality: Mac users tend to be more aware of viruses and malware. The fact is, opening an ".exe" file in OS X does nothing to a Max, because Macs CANNOT read these files. The only 'loopholes' for Mac viruses are the same as the most epidemic Windows viruses: Social networks, Instant Messaging, Email attachments, infected websites. Again, ".exe"s, the form of most viruses, cannot affect Macs. Only Java apps, Microsoft Office macros, etc, can be gateways for viruses.

-Architecture of OS X: OS X requires users to key in a user admin password to do major changes to the operating system. These include installing new applications which will affect the System "Library", installing updates to the Operating System, etc. If a virus tries to install itself, this would probably be activated, and the user may be able to stop it at this level. the password prompts are not as frequent as those in Vista, and users know when to expect these, so users will not just click "Allow"...

-The Safari example: Safari is not exactly the most secure browser in the world it has loopholes. But on OS X, the loopholes are not obvious. Os X has been secure even though it was stuck with a buggy web browser. why? it's an aluminium balloon in a plastic cover with holes. when you move safari to Windows, a vulnerable piece of paper, the viruses can do damage to the system. the same holes, but different OS... get the picture?

In conclusion, Macs are safe. Maybe not for long, but they are, at "press" time. So go ahead, make some virus for the mac. see if it works. even if it's classified as a "proof-of-concept" virus, it's still a virus.