"Rude awakening" for Mac users
Thu Apr 05, 2012 2:43 pm
'Rude awakening' for Mac users: serious Mac flaw needs urgent fix
Definitely agree with that last part. It's understandable that Apple would promote Macs as being more secure or less prone to infection than PCs, it's a selling point worth highlighting. Still, the underlying suggestions of immunity do set them up for a fall; I have to imagine it's like a red flag to a bull as far as hackers are concerned.
Apple has released an urgent patch that will fix a security hole in its Mac operating system that has allowed some 30,000 Mac computers in Australia and more than 500,000 worldwide to be infected with malicious software (malware).
The critical update to Apple's version of Java for Mac OS X plugs at least a dozen security holes in the program and mends a flaw that attackers have recently pounced on to broadly deploy a malicious software program, known as Flashback Trojan, both on Microsoft's Windows and Apple's Mac operating systems.
The revelations come from Russian security firm Dr.Web, which reports that the Flashback Trojan has successfully infected more than 550,000 Macs (hat tip to Adrian Sanabria who wrote on his blog "(...) many Mac users have been lured into a false sense of security, and will be, or may already be, in for a rude awakening. Apple's marketing efforts are at least partially responsible for this.").
Definitely agree with that last part. It's understandable that Apple would promote Macs as being more secure or less prone to infection than PCs, it's a selling point worth highlighting. Still, the underlying suggestions of immunity do set them up for a fall; I have to imagine it's like a red flag to a bull as far as hackers are concerned.
Re: "Rude awakening" for Mac users
Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:11 pm
This was more of a flaw in Java which has always been terrible. (Along with Apples' lag time in updating their version.) Which is why, as the article notes, Apple doesn't have it installed by default. (Nor do many Linux distros.)
Mac's are inherently more secure because of how Unix kernals work. Same reason for Linux being so secure.
Microsoft can and has changed that with Windows over the years but unless they want to destroy their business by eliminating all legacy support and rewriting how the OS works completely, they can't do anything about it other than the slow progress they've been making. (Vista, 7 and 8 are basically Fort Knox compared to XP with each getting closer and closer to 'nix.)
Before Apple did that with the Mac OS their computers were hilariously insecure and riddled with all sorts of crap. Even worse than Windows before the NT kernal.
Mac's are inherently more secure because of how Unix kernals work. Same reason for Linux being so secure.
Microsoft can and has changed that with Windows over the years but unless they want to destroy their business by eliminating all legacy support and rewriting how the OS works completely, they can't do anything about it other than the slow progress they've been making. (Vista, 7 and 8 are basically Fort Knox compared to XP with each getting closer and closer to 'nix.)
Before Apple did that with the Mac OS their computers were hilariously insecure and riddled with all sorts of crap. Even worse than Windows before the NT kernal.