This kind of stuff really irritates me and every time I hear any sort of "security by obscurity" argument I want to punch my monitor. It is completely devoid of any kind of logic or even the tiniest amount of thought. I know you said it isn't "THE" reason, but to even think it is "one" of the reasons makes no sense.
And every time I see some stupid reply that insists it's not a factor at all I want to laugh my arse off.
Some people seem to think the Mac is magically protected by some Unix spell, but the truth is most people don't know Unix from a hole in the ground in the first place. They wouldn't know HOW to do it in the first place and they sure as heck aren't going to go to all the effort to learn it for a TINY TINY fraction of the marketplace (I mean overall installed users; the Mac barely even registers a blip there, 7% is overly optimistic IMO). Besides, even if it is far more difficult to write a virus for the Mac due to Unix, that's not how most users get trapped in the real world anyway. All forms of Trojans, Malware, Spyware, Adware, etc. are out there and they could just as easily be written for the Mac. It doesn't take a genius to make a trojan. They are almost as easy as a phishing scheme to create. So why are there only a few trojans for the Mac???? OBSCURITY, that's why. WTF cares about making a Mac backdoor trojan designed to steal personal information for 1% of the market, when you could get 99% for the exact same effort in Windows (and many Mac users also boot Windows so they could snag some of them as well)? Do you invest all your money in 0.05% returns or do you go for 4-10% or more? Only a stupid thief robs a poor man.
But you say there's no 'logic' in it. I say there's a LOT of logic in my argument and that you are basing your 'argument' on hear-say and your imagination. Do you have actual PROOF that obscurity plays NO part what-so-ever in the lack of malware for the Mac? No, you don't have any causation at all. You are making assumptions.
Let's just think about it logically for a second. If you are a bad guy, a malware writer or someone who wants to steal/make money off of others via the Internet, are you telling me that you would totally ignore 27 million users?
If I can snag maybe 1 out of 100,000 users with a trojan scam designed to make me money, what kind of take am I going to get with the Mac? If I assume 27 million actual active users (not machines sold), simple math tells me I might get around 270 people to fall for the trojan and give up useful personal information to a thief. If I take the same EFFORT on a Windows machine and with a BILLION + users out there (many in all walks of life, foreign countries, etc.) simple math tells me I'm going to get 10,000+ users. Even if you assume 1 out of 1000 users would fall for it, it would be 27,000 users falling victim versus 1 MILLION users on the PC. I'd rather make enough to retire than eke a living, personally, but you're telling me there's NO logic in it, what-so-ever. The math tells me otherwise.
But let's look at OS9 versus Windows and Amiga, AtariST, etc. No one is saying viruses were impossible to make for OS9 or the Amiga, etc. They did exist. I belonged to a computer user group back then. We traded software at every meeting. I got viruses on many occasions that had to be removed before running. But compared to the PC, the viruses were NOTHING. Why was that? Because it was hard/impossible? NO, it's because most Amiga uses didn't have hard drives (to store a problem past a hard reset) and weren't likely to have valuable information to steal so it wasn't worth their time and effort compared to a PC. It didn't account for ALL the reasons not to write a virus (i.e. there were some out there), but there were
one hell of a lot more for the PC!
But you don't find that logical. You think no one can target a Mac. This trojan is just a program with a stupid name on it. It doesn't use security of the OS. It uses gullibility and ignorance. These things could be made in HUGE numbers for the Mac EASILY. But why aren't they? There are endless trojans on the PC, usually infested with some kind of key logger designed to steal identities or other useful personal information. It cannot be because Macs have a magic shield because no magic shield is used with trojans! They work purely on ignorance. It's because of the statistics above! You can make a lot more money fishing in an Aquarium loaded with fish (shooting fish in a bucket) than some remote frozen stream.
So while YOU may not believe obscurity is a 'factor' in all this, I know simple math tells me it HAS to be one component, even if it's not the primary one (in the case of viruses). What other Unix system is out there worth bothering with? Linux users are even more obscure. Unix-based servers OTOH are quite lucrative. They get 'hacked' all the time (often large credit card sites, etc.). The Mac has MORE security holes than Windows7 according to most security experts. But by your logic, these guys should risk getting caught going after your home computer instead of Capital One or whatever.... (and I say Capital One because I got a notice one time they had been compromised and were issuing new cards because they got hacked).
ESPECIALLY when 95% of those users have no virus/malware detection and have security threats so far from their minds as to never think about them?
See above about trojans. I honestly don't think you've thought about the numbers at all. Just sitting there waiting to be had doesn't apply well to trojans and a smart thief isn't going to choose making $30,000 over $30 MILLION. And dumb thiefs probably don't know how to even make a trojan.
