Warning; your Mac could get Raped!

[Lau]

seriously mate, if you don't have anything remotely constructive to say, don't bother saying it. For a start, you could tell me why this is the most. boring. thread. ever.

I could be wrong, but I interpreted it as he was saying that this thread is boring in that it's a non-risk, i.e. no big deal, OSX is still ok, no need to panic.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

You're right - but the point is that under the current distribution system, if there was a worm, we would need Apple to release a specific patch for it and wait for people to get it from software update - not the best method for fire control. I have software update set to run weekly, so I wouldn't get it anyway for quite a while. Virus protection systems should catch unknowns more easily as a result of dedicated distribution systems and their inherent design is to look for things that look suspicious.

Am I saying that the worm would be stopped right away? No. Just that it might get caught, quarantined, and squashed a bit more quickly. Should people be running software from those companies? I say that the FUD they produce and performance hit outweighs the inherent security of OS X - so no. But, this POC is a reminder that we aren't invulnerable and we should at least remember that virus protection is out there.

very true on the updates being a poor method of fire control. Given the fact on windows most of the big name worm problems use holes that where patch before it hit the net it a safe to assume that a lot of people if not most are poor at keeping their computer up to date.

Also it a well known fact that a lot of people here brag about their uptime and avoid doing a restarted for updates to the OS. So that long list of people would be wide open as well.

The one advantages to an Anti virus software on the mac is chance are it updates itself much more readily so as soon as it hits the net the AV guys would make an update for the AV software and get it out. From there the computers are protected in a matter of days compared to weeks to months for a apple on. Reason I give the apple on so much longer than the AV is updates general require either the user to restarted the system and install them compared to the AV one that can and will do it all with out any user prompt and not require a reboot.

 

[mkrishnan]

Also it a well known fact that a lot of people here brag about their uptime and avoid doing a restarted for updates to the OS. So that long list of people would be wide open as well.

Guilty ... I'm not used to this business of almost weekly reboot-requiring updates!

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Nah... I'm not that worried.

My safety strategy is to keep current backup, run software updater daily, not download any s*** off the Internet or uncritically follow any links posted/mailed to me.

I'm also trying to run as a regular user most of the time, but Adobe Updater refuses to run off anything but an admin account making it a bit troublesome (as is Mozy, but that's less important).

If a major Mac OS X worm/trojan/virus hits, with a harmful payload, I may be vulnerable, but between *nix' built-in safety procedures, a certain amount of caution and fresh backups I think I'll be relatively fine...

 

[Bern]

The blogger is a fake. Check out the report on Macworld