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Anti virus. Who else doesn't bother.

Discussion in 'General' started by djDEATH, 22 Mar 2007.

  1. DreamTheEndless

    DreamTheEndless Gravity hates Bacon

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    Um yeah - something like over 100,000 currently active windows viruses (virii?) and with Mac OS X being 6 years old, still Zero viruses.... Who needs AV? (Oh yeah, the windows users...)

    On a serious note - I have macafee at work because it's installed for me and I'm not allowed to disbale it, and the windows install on my macbook pro has norton because my company requires norton or macafee be on your machine before they allow you to VPN into the network.

    Seriously - the security guys at work (the technology division of a security minded national bank,) do not require any antivirus for the mac at all.
     
  2. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    Till Macs become maintream like Windows, and then Mac will be assaulted just like Windows, if not worse :)
     
  3. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    I'd say it's not solely about the Windows being mainstream, I'd say pretty many people out there have something against Microsoft and Windows and they make viruses for it because of that. Well mostly because it's so used, but still. Also it's easy as the holes in the security are told everywhere :)
     
  4. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    There's a site dedicated to finding all the issues with Macs, and there are quite a lot, though I guess it's true, Windows has a tendency to screw up if you don't really know what you're doing, and people do start hating it :p
     
  5. Buzzons

    Buzzons Minimodder

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    -- still run Symantec Cooperate AV -- darn good = good at protecting network

    NAT IS NOT SECURITY! WHY DO PEOPLE THINK THIS!!!
     
  6. DreamTheEndless

    DreamTheEndless Gravity hates Bacon

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    Are you talking about the Month of Apple Bugs website? ( http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/ )

    Yeah, the first one was a legitimate (but patched) vulnerability in quicktime.
    The second one was a stack issue with VLC - not an apple product.
    The third one was a known issue with quicktime ON WINDOWS that had already been patched. (Didn't effect Macs at all.)
    The rest of the links are broken, but they were all pathetic except for the first one.

    Macs are 'nix - 'nix has had 30 years to develop a stable secure operating system. Macs don't crash. Macs don't get infected with viruses. Macs don't get cracked.

    With something like 10% of the installed user base of the OS market, you'd think that OS X would have 10% of the viruses of windows - instead of ZERO PERCENT.

    It was mentioned that people write viruses for windows because they don't like microsoft - giving another reason that virus writers would choose to write viruses for windows instead of OS X - but here's one for you.... Don't you think these virus writers would enjoy being the first person to actually create a mac virus?


    I know, I know, this is the wrong audience for this.

    I've lived my life in windows. I've built somewhere between 80 and 100 computers. I write (windows) software for a living. My personal computer for home use will never again be anything except a mac I wish I could get one at work. If you'd try it, you'd see..... I promise.

    Now, I admit, Apple is completely missing 2 market segments. The first, is the $400 computer. Apple doesn't offer one, and Dell does. The second, is the hardware enthusiast market. There are people that really like building their own computers. I used to be one of them. Apple doesn't offer much to those folks either.

    Anyone else should buy a mac.
     
  7. WireFrame

    WireFrame <b>PermaBanned</b>

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    I am not. No viruses. Like I said, a brain and sensible surfing work wonders.
     
  8. Guest-2867

    Guest-2867 Guest

    Seriously, get the NOD32 30 day demo and you'll be pleasantly suprised

    http://www.eset.com/download/index.php
     
  9. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    Aye, (not gonna do a full quote to not piss everyone off :p). I actually have a Mac, and I enjoy a lot, I just wish it had more games and apps and all that, and specially... more hardware choices.
    I have a G4, it was cheap, it's crap, it works.. somewhat. I just hate the ridiculous prices of Macs. Other then that I really like OSX, I use Final Cut everyday, love it.

    Anyways, my brother just got a bunch of viruses.. He just learned sites arent all good :hehe:
     
  10. Gravemind123

    Gravemind123 avatar not found

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    To be honest, I can't bring my self to by an Intel mac when I could build my own Core2Duo system with better hardware for cheaper. I may not be able to run OSX, but I have more upgrade options and it saves money. Anti-virus is something I just don't bother with at all in Windows and don't need in linux.
     
  11. samkiller42

    samkiller42 For i AM Cheesecake!!

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    I dont use an anti virus on my Vista enabled machines, ive recently taken posession of a new Laptop, and as its running XP, that has Anti Vir.
    But in the past i always relayed on Trend Micro
    Even as i had to pay for it.

    Sam
     
  12. Ramble

    Ramble Ginger Nut

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    I don't run any, I haven't for a few years.
    I'm a careful user, I use Opera and I don't open random files, that cuts the virus rate to zero for me.
    Plus, I run UAC, so any virus attempting to do something should generate a prompt.

    And, just in case I do have a copy of NOD32 installed just to run the odd scan.
     
  13. nachofault

    nachofault What's a Dremel?

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    It bothers me that people make such irresponsible statements as these without having done any research, ever . Not to insult anyone in this group, but for those that truly believe that there is an unpenetrable OS, lets please look at the obvious:


    1. Apple has a security site which is used to deploy security updates (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798). In fact, in the latest patch release (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305214 and http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305215), 8 of the 31 security updates specifically address the bugs found in the Month of Apple Bugs web site (http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/). All of the links worked for me, so you may want to try another browser than Safari.

    2. Go to any large security vendor and do a search for MAC related vulnerabilities/viruses. Granted the majority of them are around Microsoft Office, but I would argue that you are only as good as the software you allow to run on your system. A good OS would prevent these types of holes.
    http://searchg.symantec.com/search?..._US_vir&output=xml_no_dtd&context=hho&x=5&y=7

    http://search.mcafee.com/search?acc...-8&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&=&start=0

    http://www.google.com/custom?cof=LW...ns=virusbtn.com&sitesearch=virusbtn.com&q=OSX

    3. Do a little research on some open source security tools, you may be surprised what you find. An example:
    http://www.theta44.org/main.html

    4. And lastly, who would want to help Apple when security researchers are treated like this? I'd say let them rot! What can individuals or small corporations do to protect themselves when you have behemoths like Apple and their underlings ignore the stated facts and go on a smear campaign? Shame on Apple!
    http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=451
     
  14. FuzzyOne

    FuzzyOne

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    Common sense prevails, I'm sure were all pretty wise enough to not download any old crap and resist the urge to make our sword 16" bigger via email.

    Linux, Windows and OSX - Apples, Oranges and Pears
     
  15. nachofault

    nachofault What's a Dremel?

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    It's not just "old crap", rather straight-out-of-box Windows and Apple are vulnerable.

    http://www.omninerd.com/2007/03/26/articles/74

    And in the context of my initial post, Windows, Apple, and Linux serve the same purpose -> personal computer.

     
    Last edited: 31 Mar 2007
  16. Valo

    Valo Minimodder

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    i havent used an antivirus solution for last 5 years and when i recently scanned my computer with kaspersky labs's online virus scanner it found like... 5 infected files, which were mostly trojans and nothing really harmful... So if you use your rig wisely, nothing can bite you - mind that i'm behind firewall in router and firewall in my pc.

    Other rig is MacOS X, so no viruses and even if i wanted antivir solution, theres no proper one.
     
  17. djDEATH

    djDEATH Habari gani?

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    c'mon - its all too obvious.

    Windows has a HUGE market share, like it or not, and people using Macs because there arent any viruses, are people who are aware of those viruses existence in the first place.

    I'd say a majority of people who use 'computers' (regardless of what company made it or who wrote the software) dont know what they're doing.

    If you lok at windows market share, its somethign like 90%, so most of 90% is where the stupid people are.

    COupled with the fact that a brand new mac costs at least 150% of a comparable PC, stupid and thick people dont buy Macs, so all the stupid people who are likely to get suckered by spyware and viruses are windows users. They probably dont even use windows update.

    Why write a virus for anythign else? Its a waste of time.


    Its also unfair to say that windows doesn't keep up with security bugs in hardware and other configs.

    Mac OS X come preinstalled on a select small base of hardware, and is probably tested again and again and again and again before being sent out and even after that there are still updates to download.

    Windows is designed for ANY x86 hardware, and pretty much any PCI. PCI-X or PCI-e device that the world can throw at it. Along with the fact that it can be installed by the OEM, by system builders, enthusiasts, or home users, and theres a wealth of difference here.

    Granted the unix subsystem is harder to write viruses for, but thats really cos nobody wants to break into unix systems, they want to steal money from stupid people, and so they attack unpatched and vulnerable windows installs on dodgy hardware.
     
  18. mookboy

    mookboy BRAAAAAAP

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    MacBook Pro is defenceless, as have my previous iMac and iBooks been too.

    My gaming PC is only loaded with a firewall - and that's just down to paranoia.

    And regarding the comment that Mac's don't crash - I wish that was true.
     
  19. Seth

    Seth What's a Dremel?

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    ^my powerbook g4 has never crashed.... actually thats a lie it froze once when I was trying to do something pretty hefty in photoshop. I only had 512 at the time tho. *shrug*

    My pc's all run linux, tho I do have one machine. It doesn't have antivirus but it does have spybot and ad-aware.
    I have never had issues with any sort of a virus.
     
  20. mookboy

    mookboy BRAAAAAAP

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    Based on my experience with the new Intel powered MacBook Pro's, the old chesnut of Mac's being more reliable is less true now in my opinion. My old G4 iBook and my G5 iMac never skipped a beat in over 4yrs of combined use. I've had my MacBook Pro since last May and it's been completely reformatted twice due to it completely stuffing up. And I'm not sure if it's the difference in software across the G-series computers and the new Intel based machines, but it completely locks up on a reasonably frequent basis - I maybe have to reset from the powerswitch a couple of times a month.

    I agree with the earlier point though - Mac owners are far too complacent about their security and we'll get biten on the arse one day because of it...
     

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