“Experts at UK security company Sophos suggest Apple might be the best route to security for the masses – that is, until consumers all buy one,” Matt Whipp writes for PC Pro. “UK security company’s senior technology consultant Graham Cluley rolled out the damning virus statistics for 2005, showing that with a 48 per cent rise in new viruses, buying a Windows box has never been more risky.”
Whipp writes, “This year saw nearly 16,000 new viruses added to the Sophos database… Plug an unprotected Apple or Linux box onto the Internet, and you can expect to see the infection rate flatline, said Cluley. That’s not to say there are no viruses for Mac OS X or the various Linux distributions, but Windows viruses dwarf them. ‘It wouldn’t really work for businesses,’ said Cluley, ‘But for consumers I think [Apple] is quite good.'”
Whipp writes, “You can accuse it of security through obscurity, but in a world where 70 per cent of Windows users don’t feel the responsibility of securing their computers, perhaps they are better off with a less targetted platform. Perhaps they don’t deserve Windows… Last month saw the biggest slew of new viruses on record, with some 1,940 new signatures added to the Sophos library.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Where, oh where, do they make this caliber of idiot writers? There are zero Mac OS X viruses. None. Nada. Zilch. Nil. Just zero. As in, none. 0. Security via Obscurity is a myth clung to by people who’ve unfortunately wasted their time and money upon Windows and now need a defense mechanism to protect their fragile minds from realizing the depths of their mistake. See Stockholm Syndrome for related information. Mac OS X would work for businesses and does work for thousands worldwide each and every day. Whipp writes, “Perhaps they don’t deserve Windows.” Who does deserve Windows, exactly? Our list: Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Rob Enderle, Rob Glaser, Saddam Hussein, death row inmates, all members of The Society of Inept Imitations, followers, console-less gamers, those too cheap for their own good, Wal-Mart computer shoppers (don’t buy your computer in Wal-Mart, folks), those unable to understand price/performance and/or total cost of ownership, people who’d rather work on getting their computers to work than using their computers to get work done, people who don’t understand that you get what you pay for, those who want to risk the contents of their computers, those who want to be scammed, those who enjoy monopoly abusers, sadomasochists, Registry lovers, people who see only sticker prices, those who like things upside down and backwards, people who think intuitive things are too easy, spyware/bloatware/malware/adware/virus/worm developers…
There are zero-percent (0%) of viruses for the Mac OS X platform that should, logically, have some 10-16% of the world’s viruses if platforms’ install bases dictated the numbers of viruses. The fact that Mac OS X has zero (0) viruses discounts “security via obscurity.” There should be at least some Mac OS X viruses. There are none. The reason for this fact is not attributable solely to “obscurity,” it’s attributable to superior security design.
According to Apple, there are “close to 16 million Mac OS X users” in the world and there are still zero (0) viruses. According to CNET, the Windows Vista Beta was released “to about 10,000 testers” at the time the first Windows Vista virus arrived. So much for the security via obscurity myth.
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Microsoft Windows virus spreads rapidly; Apple Macintosh unaffected – November 28, 2005
Computer columnist: anti-virus software purely optional for Apple Macs, not so for Windows – November 01, 2005
Microsoft apologists and why Apple’s Mac OS X has zero viruses – October 24, 2005
NY Times’ Pogue: Apple’s iMac G5 with sleek, virus-free, spyware-free OS earns place in living room – October 19, 2005
$500 bounty offered for proof of first Apple Mac OS X virus – September 27, 2005
Symantec: 10,866 new Microsoft Windows virus and worm variants in first half 2005 – September 19, 2005
How to avoid viruses and malware? Dump your Windows PC and get an Apple Macintosh – August 22, 2005
Do Apple Mac OS X users need antivirus software? – August 22, 2005
ZDNet: How many Mac OS X users affected by the last 100 viruses? None, zero, not one, not ever – August 18, 2005
Hackers already targeting viruses for Microsoft’s Windows Vista – August 04, 2005
16-percent of computer users are unaffected by viruses, malware because they use Apple Macs – June 15, 2005
Intel CEO Otellini: If you want security now, buy a Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC – May 25, 2005
There are no viruses for Apple’s Mac OS X – May 13, 2005
Apple touts Mac OS X security advantages over Windows – April 13, 2005
97,467 Microsoft Windows viruses vs. zero for Apple Mac’s OS X – April 05, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X is virus-free – March 18, 2005
Cybersecurity advisor Clarke questions why anybody would buy from Microsoft – February 18, 2005
Security test: Windows XP system easily compromised while Apple’s Mac OS X stands safe and secure – November 30, 2004
Microsoft: The safest way to run Windows is on your Mac – October 08, 2004
Information Security Investigator says switch from Windows to Mac OS X for security – September 24, 2004
New York Times: Mac OS X ‘much more secure than Windows XP’ – September 18, 2003
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003
LOL MDN – great take. But you forgot to add Thurott to your list.
After reading the article, it just makes me wonder if there are really any real journalists left in this small world. This article is so bobus that the author is just spewing bovine fecal matter. What makes this even worse is that it has hit the proverbial fan. I would strong urge the mac community to write to the editor and demand an immediate retraction.
“Apple Mac the best route for security for the masses”
Well, duh. But you can easily secure a Windows box too. Don’t turn it on.
(first Ampar post)
I love MDN. Great piss and vinegar reporting.
But I also love the Microsoft ad right next to where I’m writing this.
The irony.
jeez! Calm down MDN. or change the “Take” to the “frustrated Rant”
Don’t sugercoat it, tell us how you really feel.
(Was in EB Games yesterday looking at a CrashBox 360 (actually trolling for reasons to dis it), told this kid i refused to have anything from Microsoft in my house, he says “So you don’t have a computer then?” This from a kid I am sure knows what an iPod is. The musician I was talking to knew I meant Macs of course, as he is a not so recent switcher)
MW-efforts, my efforts in trolling were successful
re: ad
I keep getting an ad for Monster.ca
I get how they know I am in Canada, but just because I have time to read this site doesn’t mean I am job hunting
My God…
MDN just cannot take a complement to OSX can it?
In an article talking predominantly about Windows, the following are the bottom-line, take-home messages the article-reader gets.
1- “Plug an unprotected XP computer to the Internet and there’s only a 6 per cent chance of avoiding infection within an hour. “
2- “But there are other options. Plug an unprotected Apple or Linux box onto the Internet, and you can expect to see the infection rate flatline, said Cluley.”
That’s not bad IMHO.
MDN, Be careful with that “Don’t buy your computer at Wal-Mart” stuff. Who knows how much time and market share it will take before we see Macs at “the Wall-marks”
Please name just one OSX virus. I want to see if any exist. I have been looking for them, but I can’t find any. Thank you.
Man, I live for the MDN takes, awesome, yes, I need a life. Gee, that Western Union ad is in my face, but what can i say I haven’t spent a dime here, and I visit MDN everyday.
mw-outside, but s__t its -4 F.
“Security through Obscurity?” …
Dont believe it !
And whats this MicroShaft Server ad doing at a mac related site ??
MDN … oh please tell me you havent gone to the dark side ?
Ads, what ads..? I don’t see any, not even one.. Feel like I must be missing out… then again perhaps not.
But note I will route to the Apple store via MDN when I next buy… like the Xmas presents next week!
And as for the donkey that wrote the article about Sophos… Ican only think its all about them trying -with FUD- to preserve their business. It’ll be very quiet for them once everyone has switched!
“MDN just cannot take a complement to OSX can it?”
Not when it’s a backhanded and inaccurate “complement.”
Note they also said…”not to say there are no viruses for Mac OS X or the various Linux distributions, but Windows viruses dwarf them.”
That is blatantly false seeing as how there are zero viruses as of this moment.
This just in …
Digitimes sez Mac Intels will arrive next June .. for those interested … read it ..here .. now… or at MDN later ..
no ads here (no vira either).
MDN is perpetuating a gross exaggeration about Windows XP.
If you register your software at your computer dealer’s shop behind their firewall where it is safe. If you keep your XP computer at home totally isolated from the internet and do not trade data and programs with other users. If you reboot your XP computer every 24 hrs, you can have relatively trouble free computing. You can even use an iPod with it.
If you need the internet go to the library and use their computers like everyone else.
SJR:
I fully understand. But my point is that the Windows-user-reader probably gets a positive message about OSX. MDN should at least point that out. (they only did in the title of the entry)
Peace
Even on death row there are people who deserve better than Windows. Especially the ones convicted wrongly.
I seem to have
successfully
blocked the
ad that is
squeezing the
feedback box
to a size my
waist was
some thirty
years ago.
I don’t see no
ad. Nothing.
Nada. Rien.
Nashi. Resh.
Zilch. Zip.
Ling.
Zero.
0
o
.
The only virus for OS X is the one that infects a journalists brain so that when he/she writes about one he talks bullshit.
Why don’t they just write the truth. Currently there are no viruses for OS X. This does not of course rule out there ever being any in the future, but OS X’s more secure architecture, philosphy towards security in general and excellent track record over the last 5 years means that at the absolute worst any problem that did occur would still be a drop in the ocean when compared with the tidal wave of problems associated with Microsofts offering.
TooHot: the problem here is not the backhanded compliment. It is the distortion of the facts. In this day and age of the sound bite a whisper is hardly ever heard.
The author says, “That’s not to say there are no viruses for Mac OS X or the various Linux distributions, but Windows viruses dwarf them. ‘It wouldn’t really work for businesses,”. Well the facts state otherwise and blowhards like these should not be given kudos because their conclusions fit with our philosophy. His conclusions should fit with reality. And reality says that their are NO viruses for OS X. Period.
It insults everyone’s intelligence when beliefs are used in place of facts to support an argument. The end does not justify the means and only opens the door to more mythology.
The sad thing is that journalists these days are not made of the same stuff they used to be, and they tend to make things up as they go. Not all, but a lot of them!
have you ever been pestered by a group of hungry journalists after a story? They ask the most stupid questions and try to get you to say things you never intended. After the frenzy you just sit and wonder what the hell the story will look like when they have spliced it together.
I have had the experience of journalists writing stories about things I have been involved in overseas and they were not very accurate and didn’t really get the truth, but as the old addage goes, never let the truth get in the way of a good story!
Most are not that clued up anyway and just like the rest of us muddle through life. We should not put the press on a pedestal and believe everyhting they write. Out of all the paper jocks out there you could count the real professionals on one hand.
DaVinci, journalism hasn’t changed a whit.
Nice MS ad!
Hey dudes,
It’s viruses , not vira, virii, virus’s, viralarum, and viradiculous.
Oh yeah, and the Macs have NONE.
The article does have (or tries to have) a positive angle to it. But the snarkiness of the writer undermines the core message he’s trying to give. “For the average home user, your best bet for trouble free computing is an Apple Mac.” It’s the caveats and “not-to-says” that make this message have less impact. The writer is not explaining things in plain and simple facts, which he SHOULD. Written corectly, the article would have come out more like this..
“Experts at UK security company Sophos suggest Apple is currently the best route to security for the masses,” Matt Whipp should have written for PC Pro. “UK security company’s senior technology consultant Graham Cluley rolled out the damning virus statistics for 2005, showing that with a 48 per cent rise in new Windows™ viruses, buying a Windows box has never been more risky.”
Whipp should have written, “This year saw nearly 16,000 new Windows™ viruses added to the Sophos database… Plug an unprotected Apple or Linux box onto the Internet, and you can expect to see the infection rate flatline, said Cluley. That’s because there are currently NO Mac OS X viruses or malware in the wild, and Linux is considered more secure than Windows™, in the right hands. That’s not to say there will never be viruses for Mac OS X. There are some viruses for the various Linux distributions, but Windows viruses dwarf them all. ‘It would really work well for businesses, who could run Windows™ applications in Virtual PC™, where Windows™ could be run more securely‘ said Cluley, ‘For consumers I think [Apple] is quite good.'”
Whipp should have written, “Some accuse it of security through obscurity, but with roughly a 10-16% installed user base, Mac OS X should have at least a few viruses. There are still Zero viruses for Mac OS X. In a world where 70 per cent of Windows users don’t understand the responsibility of securing their computers, perhaps they are better off with a less vulnerable platform. Last month saw the biggest slew of new Windows™ viruses on record, with some 1,940 new signatures added to the Sophos library.”
Better, maybe?