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Monday, May 08, 2006

Virii: Macs vs PC ... Who are You Going to Pickpocket? Army Ranger or Fat Tourist?

When it comes to viruses, Macs are the equivilient of a First Lieutenant, US Army Rangers. If you picking someone to rob, picking on a Mac is like trying to rob a First Lieutenant, US Army Rangers. You will wind up lying on the street bleeding and wondering what the hell hit you - in one case literally and in one case figuratively. That's why hackers - like pickpockets and robbers take one glance at the defenses and posture - and moves on ... ... To where the fat tourists are napping while their camcorder sits by their engorged stomachs - and their bag is at their feet and the passport half falling out. By the same measure - hackers are like pickpockets - they are lazy and will go where the pickings are easy. Why try to take on someone or something that will just kick your ass and make you look stupid or will you go to where your victims are defenseless and napping? I don't have the crime stats in front of me but I'll bet in places like Ft. Bragg, US Army Rangers are rarely crime victims - so it's not a matter of sheer numbers but how vulnerable you are. As a Mac user since 1986 - there was a virus in 1987 where my Word file got corrupted headers - man what an inconvenience, I had to open and copy my text out to a new doc - that's the extent of the worst virus on the Mac since 1987 ... Almost TWENTY YEARS AGO ... PC users - what's the record on the your side? Can you match that? Why is it the fat guy with shorts is always complaining about crime - while you don't hear much complaining from an Army Ranger? SAME REASON as a Mac. It's just too much damn work. Is it possible? Sure. But why risk an ass-kicking when you could just grab a camcorder and out-run your pursuer in 15 seconds? Why are PC's used as zombies? Why do PC's have over 10,000 CRITICAL calls of security and over 100,000 overall? Because it's on vacation, it's sunburned, it's sleepy, it's out of shape and it's easily confused. Hey, to each his own but just don't complain when someone else is in shape and can kick your ***. As for the new Apple ads - specifically the "virus" one, note that the "Mac" does not say he is impervious to virii, only that there are over 114,000 known virii but "not for Macs," and it's true - those PC virii do NOT affect Macs ... There is a difference in saying that versus saying Macs are impervious.

7 Comments:

Blogger Ron Bannon said...

You obviously don't live in my neighborhood (Newark, NJ) where the crooks typically target what ever is in their way. The cops seem to enjoy the lawlessness, because it just makes their jobs seem important --- but they do absolutely nothing to help stop crime. So, as a Mac user, I don't buy your analogy. Macs are mostly free from attacked because they don't live in a shitty neighborhood, not because they're the tough guys. Windows on the other hand is populated with far too many shit-heads that have nothing better to do than beat-up the poor bastard that cannot get out of their really bad neighborhood (Windows).

Free iPods anyone? http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=22990096

12:39 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Both analogies are good; but I much prefer the "Broken Window" analogy as it was put forward by John Gruber in 2004 (http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/broken_windows)

It is a very well written article on security.

Farhan
http://macbonsai.com/blog/

1:27 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent observation.

I would like to point out that the plural of "virus" is actually "viruses" and not "virii."

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=virus

Great informative blog, btw!

4:15 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There was one other mac virus during the 80's era. The Nvir virus. If memory serves me correctly it would infect your applications and eventually make them unusable all the while making the computer say "don't panic" at random intervals

8:29 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Reminds me of the story of two guys who come upon a grizzly bear. One guy starts putting on his running shoes.

The other guys says "Are you nuts? You can't outrun a grizzly."

The first guy replies "I don't have to outrun the grizzly. I just have to outrun you."

8:49 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're so biased toward Apple Computer that I've now decided to label you as a fan-boy, which many will tell you is only bad for the Apple Computer image.

Hackers/Virus writers choose not to attack Apple Computer because our market share (yes, I'm a Mac user) is so low compared to Windows users. If you're going to spend a hefty amount of time writing some code to destroy a computer, would it be more beneficial to attack a large audience rather than a smaller one?

Of course, now that Apple have stated themselves that there are no virus' on Macs, people will want to write them in hope of being the "first person to hit a Mac". In reality though, OS X has already been hit by malacious code in the form of a Worm, albeit rather pathetic and not at all dangerous.

Your writing is good, by the way, but you're far too biased toward Apple which makes for shoddy reading. I love Apple just as much as the next guy, but they're by no means perfect - don't become a fan-boy.

11:08 AM

 
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1:47 AM

 

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