To be fair, even though iOS and OS X are related there's a whole different concept in play with iOS when it comes to security.
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Average Mac User Faced Nine Malware Threats Last Year, but OS X Remains Minor Target
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Any OS can be secure if you can only get programs from one source and have everything in a sandbox.
Sure. And to be even more fair, let's acknowledge that iOS's security success has propelled new features in mainstream OS X as well, such as the App Store and Gatekeeper. Others such as Microsoft are paying attention and are implementing similar walled-garden-ish provisions as well. For most users, that's a significant security bonus. (For power users who know what the risks are, Gatekeeper can be loosened or turned off.)
It would be nice to see Apple get some credit for pointing the way to improved security, including innovations such as their impressive implementation of Touch ID and the deep security integration in Apple Pay. Certainly Apple isn't the only font of security and privacy innovations in the computing world today, but they've made some significant contributions to the art which should be acknowledged. The list also includes FileVault 2, the Mac's excellent whole-disk encryption system, which is a no-extra-cost built-in feature of OS X and exacts no perceptible performance hit. And, since data loss through physical damage or theft is the biggest threat to most folks' files, a tip of the hat is due to Time Machine too, and also the built-in recovery volume in every recent OS X machine. And then there's OS X's ability to be reinstalled in-place without wiping all the user's data... an un-obvious but valuable bonus that can get a compromised machine running again.
Now if we can only do something about the insecure wetware that sits at the keyboard! That remains the biggest threat, regardless of platform.
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Most corporations have strict policies against installation of unauthorized software. Yet anti-virus is still a practical requirement for Certain Platforms. It's hard to square that with what you just said.
Windows Phone has no malware and has never successfully been completely hacked. The attempt was stopped by the sandbox. As for corporations having a strict policy for antivirus? They'd likely use it for Macs as well.
Yeah, I know...
Article: OSX malware threat every 40 days or so
Poster A: BS! I've not had an OSX infection in 20yrs
Poster B: it's not BS. My MS Word caught a virus just 14yrs ago.
Do you not see 2 big problems with your response?
Marketshare? Right. When I am at airports, I only see mac around me, OSX hold about 7% of the total market share, what those "cry wulf" corporation forget to mention is that the majority of the windows PC are corporate pc hiding after huge firewalls and typically lag back in adopting the latest software available. Would you compare private devices, I think OSX's market share is already pass the said 20%. They (Kaspersky and others) gain by the fact that you believe your are being targeted by virus and malware, if not there would not be any business for them.
More worried about others, than my own Mac...
I run antivirus on my Mac, but it's more to avoid the embarassment of accidentally passing on something nasty I receive in a Word or Excel file to my Windows clients and peers, rather than worrying about anything that might try to infect my Mac.
I run antivirus on my Mac, but it's more to avoid the embarassment of accidentally passing on something nasty I receive in a Word or Excel file to my Windows clients and peers, rather than worrying about anything that might try to infect my Mac.
I think they're saying that on average, Macs were attacked 9 times over the previous year. They're not implying that your Mac or a friend's Mac was attacked. And that 9 average is only an estimate.
It's kinda small compared to the 90% of non-Macs.
Amiright?
Ehhh not really. It's certainly much smaller than the Windows portion of the PC market, but the world is a very high population area. 10% of the entire computer market is still millions and millions of Mac users
It's by no means a small target for virus makers, and better still, nobody wold be expecting a virus so the motivation is even stronger. Most windows PC's are armed to the teeth with defence software these days.
Again, there were far more viruses for Mac OS 9 than any iteration of OS X, and that user base was but a footnote compared to the number of Macs in use today.
Unix is a big part of it. Windows is one of the last non-Unix based OS's out there. Look up your IBM and Microsoft history to discover the quickndirty origins of what would become windows. Microsoft has since moved on from this foundation, but its ghost was still present up to XP!
To say that Macs and PC's are just as likely to get a worm virus for example, and that macs simply get them less often because they are so uncommon is a widely ignorant statement in 2014.
Ehhh not really. It's certainly much smaller than the Windows portion of the PC market, but the world is a very high population area. 10% of the entire computer market is still millions and millions of Mac users
Yes... there are 80 million Macs out in the world today. That's not a small number...
...until you realize there are over a BILLION Windows PCs out there.
That's all I was trying to say.
Yes... there are 80 million Macs out in the world today. That's not a small number...
...until you realize there are over a BILLION Windows PCs out there.
That's all I was trying to say.
I'm not saying Apple is dominating PC marketshare. That would be crazy talk. But we are more plentiful today then to be ignored anymore
I'm not saying Apple is dominating PC marketshare. That would be crazy talk. But we are more plentiful today then to be ignored anymore
Yes... there are more Macs on Earth than have ever been before!
But there are also more Windows PCs on Earth than have ever been before too
I think we were confusing two different measurements: market share and userbase.
10% of something is small.... but 80 million of something is a pretty decent amount.
Anyway... you're absolutely right about OSX and Unix. It's actually very hard to make effective malware for a Mac.
And Windows is fairly locked down these days too.
But even if 25% of Windows PCs are still vulnerable to malware... that's still 3 times the userbase of all the Macs on Earth.
All of those reasons are why Windows has more malware written for it.
So... you Mac users are being ignored... by malware
Most Mac users don't use prophylactic software, so that would imply that the average user had been compromised 9 times-- which doesn't seem to align with the data.
I think "facing a threat" is different, and less severe, than being attacked.
Sadly, it's true. This one girl I knew a while back got a Mac and thought she was invincible. According to her, she was browsing the web one day and got a pop up asking for her password. She put it in (why not :roll eyes: ) and started getting "popups on my desktop."
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See my above post. A "nut head" indeed.
I don't believe either the UNIX or the market share theory are solely responsible. A believe it is a combination. Not commenting on UNIX vs Windows (not educated enough), but people need to realize it is a combination.
I never said it was a small number. I said it was a fraction.
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Ill add to that - some Macs will run Windows exclusively. A lot more than the other way around.
Let me guess, you'll say 'oh, it's ransomware which isn't technically a virus...' blah blah -- well stop being so pedantic, it hides in the AppData folder, hooks onto the explorer shell, encrypts all your data to the point where it's unrecoverable ...
The fact you're going out of your way to be pedantic without actually making a counter-argument or taking issues with anything else on my post tells a lot about your post.
The fact that you call virus something that can't infect other systems tells a lot of all the ******** about registry, Windows and all the other things you wrote.
And pedant my ass, there is no actual contra argument about the ******** you have written
Malware, virus (terminology)
When people say 'virus' I nearly always take that to mean 'malware'.
When people say 'virus' I nearly always take that to mean 'malware'.
If someone tries to pass as a security expert and it confuses a trojan with a virus it tells something