Apple Security is 10 Years Behind Microsoft, Says Kaspersky

[inthere]

Apple security is probably 20+ years behind Windows, I thought everyone knew. Steve Jobs often said
Apple did NO OS security so they could concentrate on other things. My brother-in-law lives with us and repairs computers. He said he's NEVER gotten a call for a Mac virus in 6 years. Majority of his work is cleaning viruses, some computers come in with 60-70+ viruses. He said the most viruses he's ever cleaned on a machine was 600. You know what I found? Security doesn't matter. Norton, Macafee, AVG, nothing will help you. ALL the machines that he gets in have virus protection.

So don't listen to the guy that sells virus protection because they're all worthless anyway. They*may* block 10% of the viruses that come at your machine, but the other 90% is what's going to take you out.

 

[halcyon]

Well, I did a thorough scan on both my Macs and nothing was found. So, either VirusBarrier x6 is doing its job or it's not. I generally don't have malware problems...that I'm aware of. ...not even on my PCs since '89.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]inthere[/nom]Apple security is probably 20+ years behind Windows, I thought everyone knew. Steve Jobs often said Apple did NO OS security so they could concentrate on other things. My brother-in-law lives with us and repairs computers. He said he's NEVER gotten a call for a Mac virus in 6 years. Majority of his work is cleaning viruses, some computers come in with 60-70+ viruses. He said the most viruses he's ever cleaned on a machine was 600. You know what I found? Security doesn't matter. Norton, Macafee, AVG, nothing will help you. ALL the machines that he gets in have virus protection. So don't listen to the guy that sells virus protection because they're all worthless anyway. They*may* block 10% of the viruses that come at your machine, but the other 90% is what's going to take you out.[/citation]

Norton and Mcafee are hardly any better than not having protection. AVG is okay, but it's not nearly the best. Furthermore, security is not just having AV. AV and such make zero difference if the user is a moron and if they can't fix it themselves, well then at the least, they didn't know what they were doing. Why don't you have your brother-in-law check the internet history on those machines and see how many porn and other virus ridden sites they visited? They probably let the viruses on themselves out of their ignorance. No amount of security programs can save a computer from user stupidity. Common sense is the greatest way to keep a computer clean.

Personally, I just use free stuff such as Avast's free AV, Comodo's free firewall, Spybot S&D, and Threatfire, among others, depending on the machine, so companies trying to sell me things are irrelevant because I'm not buying them.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]The_Trutherizer[/nom]Now just wait for the performance hit from more robust security layers. Ouch...[/citation]

Good security programs are not a big hit in performance at all. Even with Avast, Comodo Firewall, Spybot S&D, and Threatfire, my CPU usage is almost identical to what it was without these programs. They take up a good amount of memory (around 150-250MB), but they don't hurt performance much at all.

IT's the crap programs like Norton, Mcafee, and more and more with every update, AVG, that hurt performance.

 

[meBigGuy]

My apologies if this gets double posted.
There is malware out there that requires NO user interaction. My computer was sitting idle/unattended on a major news site when it was rooted by an Ad update. The infection failed for some reason (I think because my default drive is F, but left the boot sector trashed. I had MS essentials at the time, and it detected something, but didn't stop it. (all this I determined through a "forensic" analysis of the disk and logs). Again, there was no user when the attack occurred. Someone hacked the Ad provider and directed my machine to a server that launched the exploit. I since went back to Avira, and changed to Firefox with Adblock. The point is that if any ad server gets hacked, your machine gets rooted WITH NO INTERACTION and possibly you never know.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]meBigGuy[/nom]My apologies if this gets double posted.There is malware out there that requires NO user interaction. My computer was sitting idle/unattended on a major news site when it was rooted by an Ad update. The infection failed for some reason (I think because my default drive is F, but left the boot sector trashed. I had MS essentials at the time, and it detected something, but didn't stop it. (all this I determined through a "forensic" analysis of the disk and logs). Again, there was no user when the attack occurred. Someone hacked the Ad provider and directed my machine to a server that launched the exploit. I since went back to Avira, and changed to Firefox with Adblock. The point is that if any ad server gets hacked, your machine gets rooted WITH NO INTERACTION and possibly you never know.[/citation]

The same can happen to any machine whether it's running Windows, OSX, Linux, or any other operating system. Some AV and other anti-malware programs might have been able to stop it, but none of that matters with the OS. Any computer could be attacked in such a way.

 

[Guest]

What? Apple never fails to meet the expectations of each new crowd of conspicuous consumers that wait in line to buy the next deceptively marketed, under featured, overpriced, proprietary novelty product produced by Chinese slave labor every six months.

 

[dreadlokz]

Apple Security??? kkkkkkk
LOL
Apple has no security! Just like that!
Cry Apple FANBOYS CRY!
I hope after this one... they go with the hype and make new viruses for apples everyday! Some like that good ones who ruined your hardware... would love to see a $10k MAC ruined by those =D

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]dreadlokz[/nom]Apple Security??? kkkkkkkLOLApple has no security! Just like that!Cry Apple FANBOYS CRY!I hope after this one... they go with the hype and make new viruses for apples everyday! Some like that good ones who ruined your hardware... would love to see a $10k MAC ruined by those =D[/citation]
Most of us that have a Mac in that price range do already have some type of security setup and don't spend time on malware infested sites.

 

[meBigGuy]

>>Most of us that have a Mac in that price range do already have some type of security setup and
>>don't spend time on malware infested sites.

Not spending time on malware infested sites is not enough, as I described above. Exploits exist for every browser and every OS and are launched even from reputable sites. Only good security software is going to protect you in the long run, and that isn't infallible. My experience points to the importance of blocking Ads since it is easy for the bad guys to create a dummy company and bury their expoit in the ad they submit to get served up. There is big money in malware and the Mac's time is coming. I have all the information regarding the ad company, the exploit server, and so on, but no one cared or cares. My assumption is that the exploit is served to a small percentage of the page viewers so they don't attract attention. Most viewers have no idea what hit them since it is totally unrelated to what they are viewing. Again, my machine was totally unattended for over 3 hours before the ad with the exploit server link was served.

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]meBigGuy[/nom]>>Most of us that have a Mac in that price range do already have some type of security setup and >>don't spend time on malware infested sites.Not spending time on malware infested sites is not enough, as I described above. Exploits exist for every browser and every OS and are launched even from reputable sites. Only good security software is going to protect you in the long run, and that isn't infallible. My experience points to the importance of blocking Ads since it is easy for the bad guys to create a dummy company and bury their expoit in the ad they submit to get served up. There is big money in malware and the Mac's time is coming. I have all the information regarding the ad company, the exploit server, and so on, but no one cared or cares. My assumption is that the exploit is served to a small percentage of the page viewers so they don't attract attention. Most viewers have no idea what hit them since it is totally unrelated to what they are viewing. Again, my machine was totally unattended for over 3 hours before the ad with the exploit server link was served.[/citation]
Many ads are served up by Flash, are they not? Wouldn't it be a simple thing to just disable Flash? For me that wouldn't block out any significant content.

 

[GreaseMonkey_62]

So, am I the only one who burst out laughing when I saw the title?
And people used to tell me how good Apple's security was.
Time to gloat at all the Apple fanboys/girls :lol:

I started laughing when I saw it in my RSS feed. Fanboys (except for the hardcore ones) are going to have to own up and admit they've been wrong about security all these years.

 

[XmortisX]

No OS is 100% secure, some are more secure then others yes but nothing is invisible. Any software can be hacked or compromised.

 

[Guest]

who is Kaspersky?

oh god, I've got antiviruses/viruses on my computer? Which is better?

in other words - if I buy a computer, should I feed it to an antivirus or a virus?

 

[dalethepcman]

[citation][nom]jackbling[/nom]None of that is needed. If you browse legitimate sites (a la toms), you are at zero risk. The ads here are annoying, but you are not getting a virus(there are BARELY any viruses in circulation, 99% of what is out there is malware). For any non mainstream/shady sites, use a virtualized or sandboxed browser and you are at zero risk.People thinking you need multilayer isa and hardware firewalls are a bit too intense. Run a pfsense box or similar, and use some common sense/virtu, and you are IMMUNE. Viruses/malware arent magical.[/citation]

Pharming and drive by's never happen, just like webserver code never gets compromised, and DNS servers never get poisoned. You keep believing that your safe in your sandbox, i'm sure someone else enjoys having you as part of their botnet.

 

[XmortisX]

[citation][nom]inthere[/nom]Apple security is probably 20+ years behind Windows, I thought everyone knew. Steve Jobs often said Apple did NO OS security so they could concentrate on other things. My brother-in-law lives with us and repairs computers. He said he's NEVER gotten a call for a Mac virus in 6 years. Majority of his work is cleaning viruses, some computers come in with 60-70+ viruses. He said the most viruses he's ever cleaned on a machine was 600. You know what I found? Security doesn't matter. Norton, Macafee, AVG, nothing will help you. ALL the machines that he gets in have virus protection. So don't listen to the guy that sells virus protection because they're all worthless anyway. They*may* block 10% of the viruses that come at your machine, but the other 90% is what's going to take you out.[/citation]

My experience shows that nearly 90% of times user gets infected is due to something they did. i didn't have a virus for 4 years..other day I did a routine scan, defrag, etc. Came across a trojan adclick in my system. Things happen but it's end user responsibility and most of these programs wait till user slips up and then rest is obvious. I been running kaspersky btw for past 4 years, came across machines with other software what I learned even good software can be compromised itself.