Re: [ARSCLIST] OS X/Apple (was CEDAR)

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> On 26/05/07, D P Ingram wrote:
> > On 25 maj 2007, at 19.56, Rob Poretti wrote:
> >> But you are right - it's a lot more susceptible then their original  
> >> proprietary OS.  There
> >> are pros and cons with open-source, but I don't believe many Mac  
> >> users would want to go
> >> back to pre-Jobs times...
> > Potentially more suspetible (popularity, OSes are more advanced) but  
> > the problems appear to get fixed a lot quicker, there is still no  
> > discernable virus/spyware threat etc etc. And it isn't /just/ due to  
> > popularity of the OS...
> Apple seem to be quite good at fixing potential security holes. The real
> point is that there has not yet been a real-world case of a virus or
> similar program spreading among Mac OS X computers.
> There certainly were viruses that infected the old Macs.
> 
To go back to the era of "Mac virii," one needs to return to the very
earliest days of malware...when would-be "malnerds" tried to attack
things like "boot sectors" and often programmed in machine language!

Fortunately, the skills and talents of "mal-idiots" have substantially
diminished over the last 25 years or so...so the current style is to
write virii that affect MS programs (or about 90-95% of current users)
simply by out-of-control multiplication that overwhelms the Internet
in some aspect or another!

Keep in mind that XXI Jahrhundert machines still are based on a handful
of initial digital processes...figure out a way to reliably derail the
initial boot-up process, and you have turned everything from an 8086 +
floppy antique to a Pentium v.wotever into a pile of useless electronics...!

Steven C. Barr