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— Perri Nelson, November 6, 2008

Yeah, sure, Apple is immune to hackers!

Published Wed, Dec 20 2006 2:11 PM
Technorati Tags: Computers and Internet, Annoyances

I've watched the PC vs. Mac commercials on TV, who hasn't? I think they're amusing. I also think that Apple is full of it. Take the commercial that shows the PC with the sniffles because it caught a virus while the Mac is healthy and "not worried" because Apples are immune.

That's a load of horse-hockey as Sherman T. Potter would say. The only reason hack attacks against Apple products aren't in the news very much isn't because Apples are more secure than PCs. It's really because there are so few of them out there compared to PCs that it isn't as profitable to hit them. Out of the last 1000 visits to my site, only 60 of them were Mac users. Over 870 of the visitors used a variant of Windows.

If you're going to target a PC for a hack attack to turn it into your personal spam-bot, I think it would make sense to target the most common operating systems. After all, you're more likely to find one that isn't secure when there are millions of users who likely haven't bothered to keep up with security patches. You know they're out there too, 8 of those 1000 users were using Windows Millenium, and thirteen were using Windows 98!

So I think it's interesting news that we're about to hear about a bug a day in Apple products for the next month. According to InfoWorld, two hackers are about to disclose one bug per day in Mac OS X, Safari, iTunes, iPhoto and Quicktime starting on January 1, 2007.

This latest Apple project is being launched to raise awareness of security vulnerabilities in Apple's products and to "stomp smugness," Finisterre said via e-mail.

While the Macintosh is generally considered to be more secure than the Windows PC, many security researchers believe that this reputation is not attributable to any superior security practices on the part of Apple. They say attackers have been deterred by the Mac OS X's more secure Unix kernel and the product's less widespread adoption.

Apple enthusiasts and security researchers have been at odds since last August, when David Maynor and Jon Ellch claimed to have discovered a flaw that affected Apple's wireless device drivers. They played a video at the Black Hat conference demonstrating how this flaw could be used to run unauthorized code on a MacBook. However, their claims have been slammed because the demonstration used a third-party wireless card rather than the one that ships with the MacBook, and because the two hackers still have not published the code used in their attack.

LMH said the Apple community's negative response to Maynor and Ellch's claims played a role in the decision to launch the Month of Apple bugs.

"I was shocked with the reaction of some so-called 'Apple fans,'" he said. "I can't understand why some people react badly to disclosure of issues in their system of choice. ... That helps to improve its security."

Maybe this will knock some of the "smugness" out of that Mac guy in the commercials, but I doubt it. At least people will know that it's really the popularity of the PC platform more than the security of Apple software that makes the difference in the number of hack attacks you hear about.

Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, Perri Nelson's Website, third world county, The Random Yak, The HILL Chronicles, Stuck On Stupid, The Bullwinkle Blog, Dumb Ox News, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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David responded with:

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The primary vector for attacks on Macs is... the Macuser. Seriously. I had a coworker in a small shop where we were "encouraged" (yeh, right) to use our own machines for work--usually at home, but there were exceptions even there. The guy would frequently call me up and ask to use my machine cos he couldn't perform a task on his Mac, so sure, I'd let him frop by and use it. But he'd always bitch and moan cos it didn't do things the mac way. (*duh* it wasn't a Mac). Finally, one time I was visiting him, when he stepped out, I installed am Applescript to cause his Mac to shut down after 5 mins inactivity. Drove him batty. Now, what was the vector? He left it on with me in the room unsupervised. Dumbass. Most mac users are as clueless as most PC users (or more so), but in their smugness, they are more open to MacAttacks.

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