“More home and entertainment software is available for Windows computers than for Macs. Apple’s computers, however, have attractions of their own. The brand repeatedly scores at or near the top in tech support and has been reliable. Our most recent survey of desktop computer users, in fact, rated Apple more than 20 points ahead of all the other computer manufacturers for technical support. Viruses and spyware are also far less likely to target Macs than Windows PCs, judging by the number of viruses estimated to target each computing platform–a ratio of about 1,000-to-1,” Consumer Reports erroneously reports.
MacDailyNews Note: The ratio is more like 100,000 (and growing)-to-0. There are no viruses for Apple’s Mac OS X. Zero.
Consumer Reports continues, “Viruses and spyware are far more likely to target Windows PCs than Macs. It’s too soon, to know, however, whether new Macs will be more vulnerable to attack once Apple begins its switch to Intel processors, the type used in Windows PCs, next year.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Poppycock. It’s the operating system, not the processor that’s responsible for Windows’ morass of virus and malware infections and security breaches. Are Consumer Reports really helping their readers choose a personal computer with this nonsense? And now all of the TV stations and other Consumer Reports syndication outlets will repeat this load of rubbish, too. For more about why Consumer Reports is reporting absurdities about Apple Macs due to their flawed methodology, please see this related article:
Consumer Reports dubiously finds 20-percent of Mac users ‘detected’ virus in last two years -UPDATED – August 10, 2005
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
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
ZDNet: How many Mac OS X users affected by the last 100 viruses? None, zero, not one, not ever – August 18, 2005
Intel CEO Otellini: If you want security now, buy a Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC – May 25, 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
Columnist tries the ‘security through obscurity’ myth to defend Windows vs. Macs on virus front – October 1, 2003
New York Times: Mac OS X ‘much more secure than Windows XP’ – September 18, 2003
Fortune columnist: ‘get a Mac’ to thwart viruses; right answer for the wrong reasons – September 02, 2003
Shattering the Mac OS X ‘security through obscurity’ myth – August 28, 2003
Virus and worm problems not just due to market share; Windows inherently insecure vs. Mac OS X – August 24, 2003
I bought a VCR based on their recommendation. It broke a day later.
Hm. I saw a link to an article where it was mentioned that spyware for Mac does exist and there was this link:
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http://www.spectorsoft.com/press/press_releases/02_01_24.html
Well, it isn’t actually what I think of when I think of spyware, but oh well, what do I know?
Going on 5 years and counting and still no viruses on OSX period, end of story. More than 17 million users and still no viruses on OSX.
This was updated not too long ago…
http://macscan.securemac.com/
Not just emulation, but if I run WINE which will allow MacOS/Intel to run Windows apps natively, the question is will WINE allow Windows malware to run as well?
I suspect not, but those of you who are dismissing the possibility out of hand without due investigation have been drinking too much Cupertino Kool-Aid. Consumer Reports is correct to note caution in that regard.
CR’s reviews of audio equipment, particularly speakers, are equally ridiculous. All they do is measure the frequency response, which is kind of like measuring the color of a car’s paint and proclaiming all the blue ones winners. Some of the worst trash got their highest ratings.
Problem with CR is they think everything can be quantified. Well, even if they were right, they sure as hell don’t know what to measure.
Um, anyone remember “Phantom Update”?
Or the Mac OS X URI Handler Arbitrary Code Execution exploit?
Don’t get too smug.
Ok I have had something happen today that made me nervous. If you don’t have Powerpoint on your system pps files don’t load properly and end up looking like giberish in Safari. I file usually takes about 2 minutes to “clear” and if you are lucky you won’t have to restart Safari. Well something similar happen at a less than dubious site today, Lots of chinese charaters and my hard drive went nuts for a couple of minutes. I tried to force a restart of Safari, no change so I forced a retart of the computer and that stopped it. The last time somthing like that happened I was running XP and I had to do a complete format. Thank you OSX.
MW day. I hate the thought of it but we will all be scrambling to Norton and others when it does happen.
Here is a pps file if you havn’t tried to download one. Elchinero has some great aircraft videos btw http://www.elchineroconcepts.com/Wally118.pps
Please elaborate, I don’t remember any “Phantom Update”. A Google search only turns up an iPhoto update which was mistakenly released early.
The URL handler issue was fixed by the Mac community in less than 24 hrs, Apple followed up within a couple of weeks, no exploits were reported.
I don’t think that anyone believes that an exploit could never happen, just that it isn’t particularly likely, and definately less risky than CR’s incorrect ratio of “1000 to 1”. That statement amounts to FUD. It isn’t supported by the facts.
“Here is a pps file if you havn’t tried to download one. Elchinero has some great aircraft videos btw http://www.elchineroconcepts.com/Wally118.pps“
Your link crashes Safari on my machine. I have Powerpoint installed. I sent a bug report to Apple. Running 10.3.9 and Safari 1.3.1
Where do these people get their stupid ideas and misinformation from? it almost seems likely Microsoft is paying them to spread FUD about Apple.
Tim Coughlin
http://timcoughlin.typepad.com
That link crashes Firefox too, but not Opera.In Opera it loads as a bunch of garbage. It doesn’ t load as a Powerpoint file, (I think) its trying to load as HTML.
I just sent consumer report a terse email outlining my displeasure at their erroneous reporting. You can also show your displeasure at their website.
http://custhelp.consumerreports.org/cgi-bin/consumerreports.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
Here is the text I submitted to Consumer Reports.
——–
I recently read your article “Buying a computer 12/05” (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/computers/buying-a-computer-1205/windows-or-macintosh.htm).
This article contains many erroneous statements about macintosh computers in regards to their susceptiblity to viruses. I am not sure where to begin so I will just give you a link to a Mac Daily News website article that points out better than i ever could many of the errors in your reporting. In summary there are no viruses for the Apple OS X operating system. There were a few for Apple operating systems used a decade ago. . .Currently the ratio is NOT 100-1 it might be 100 000- 0. Let me reiterate . .there are no viruses for OS X.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/7877/
Your poor performance in fact-checking is a diservice to your readers. Your readers are subsricbers that pay money for the information you provide. You are obligated to do a better job in the area of computer reporting than you are currently doing.
———-
“CR has been anti Apple from the get go ….I have never read a positve, knowledgeable review about Apple products from their rag”
I dont get the mag, but my stepdad does and I usually skim through it when i visit. Actually they ahve had a lot of pro-Mac articles over the last couple years. The problem is, despite the fact that the general tone of the article is very positive, they still screw up the details and miss the mark on specifics. They had an article within the last year title 54,000 reasons to buy a Mac and it was because there were 54000 viruses on Windows machines.
I dont remember what they said about the Mac side virus-wise. I get bored reading how great Macs are because I already know it so I skimmed most of the article.
Now CNet on the other hand. Thats a media outlet that seems to have Mac bashing in their corporate mission statement.
Here’s an email I sent to Consumer Reports:
Thankyou for a useful and interesting report on buying a Computer. However, there are a few inaccuracies in your “Windows or Macintosh” and Security sections that result in somewhat less than balanced report.
The “Windows or Macintosh” section mentions that the ratio of viruses targeting Windows vs Mac OS X is 1000-to-1. Although this seems impressive, the ratio is considerably more extreme being of the order of 140,000 to 0. As Kelly Martin, the content editor for Symantec’s publication SecurityFocus
has said in April 2005: “There are no viruses on OS X — not a single one…
Just as Windows users have become accustomed to 140,000 viruses, Apple users
have become accustomed to none.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/21/apples_big_virus/
You cannot in all conscience include the 60 or so bits of malware that targeted the old Classic Mac OS 9 which do not affect the modern Mac OS X (which is almost as different an architecture as Windows XP is from the Mac). Unlike viruses for earlier versions of Windows (eg Win 95) which can and do affect Windows XP, Mac OS 9 viruses cannot harm Mac OS X which ships with every new Mac (and has done so for 5 years now). The Classic environment has not been bundled with OS X for quite a while now.
Your report also mentions that “Viruses and spyware are also far less likely to target Macs than Windows PCs”. This statement again while positive to the Mac platform also ignores how extreme the contrast is – there are *still* no reported instances of spyware or adware that work on the Mac.
Here are the raw statistics for your information:
Microsoft Windows:
Viruses and Worms = 140,000 (Symantec Security Focus)
Spyware and Adware programs = 78,000 (http://www.pestpatrol.com)
Burrowers = 40 (http://www.pestpatrol.com)
80% of PCs infected with spyware (webroot.com)
Last year (2004) alone:
– 500 new Trojans (http://www.pestpatrol.com)
– 500 new keyloggers (http://www.pestpatrol.com)
– 1,287 new adware apps (http://www.pestpatrol.com)
– 7,360 new viruses and worms (symantec.com)
Mac OS X:
Viruses and Worms = 0
Spyware programs = 0
Adware = 0
Keyloggers = 0
Burrowers = 0
Trojans = 3 (symantec.com)
Last year (2004):
– 1 Rootkit (symantec.com)
When you look at the actual data, it becomes pretty obvious that with zero
worms, viruses, spyware or adware recorded targeting it, the statement
“fewer viruses and spyware” sounds like a glaring misdirection. Mac OS X remains the safest, pest-free OS by a far larger margin than you imply, a fact which would get much larger attention in a more accurate report.
Note that Trojans can’t spread by themselves – they are bits of code that
pretend to be something innocuous and need to be downloaded and opened by an
authorised user. In the case of the three targeting Mac OS X, two are
harmless while the third deletes a user’s home directory if run by that
user.
Note also the Rootkit discovered on a couple of OS X machines is a set of
scripts that requires root access to be turned on (turned off by default on
all Macs). The hacker then also needs to know the root password and the
malware has no mechanism of spreading and infecting other computers by
itself.
Note that 37 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X noted last year (which were
promptly patched by Apple) does not constitute “increased attacks on OS X”
as some commentators have stated as no attacks using any of these
vulnerabilities have been recorded. Security firm Mi2g states: “Mac OS X
and BSD Unix are the “world’s safest and most secure 24/7 online computing
environments.”
http://www.mi2g.com/cgi/mi2g/frameset.php?pageid=http://www.mi2g.com/cgi/m
i2g/press/190204_2.php
John Gruber has a useful article on why Windows suffers so much malware:
http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/broken_windows
However, no software can be perfect and it would be foolish to say there
won’t eventually appear some malware targeting the 15 million+ OS X users
out there – however, today is still not that day. Mac OS X has been sitting
untouched for 5 years now pretty much without blemish which speaks to a very
impressive security story even if/when some effective malware appears. This is something your clients should be hearing more about if they are going to make balanced decisions about which computer to buy.
Thanks for your time.
-Mart
We are reviewing this for the January issue of macCompanion and Alan Oppenheimer has been doing a great job over the years with trusted software apps:
http://www.opendoor.com/doorstopsuite/
I suggest some improvement to the MDN’s take. It shall read as follows: ” The ratio is more like 100,000 (and growing)-to-0 (AND REDUCING)”
You can’t get lower than zero. LOL
Consumer Reports is probably counting viruses and such from Mac OS 9 and older, since there were about 70 or so, which is inline with the 80,000 or so viruses available for Windows, which probably has more viruses and other malware than actual software I suspect.
I think monkeys with a typewriter would be able to remember that OS X has no viruses….
I, as a consumer, HATE consumer reports
DudeMac, you have a point, but they should have added that OS X has zero viruses, it is noteworthy… Not mentioning it is as bad as lying about it.
By the way the MP3concept trojan doesn’t work anymore since Tiger, and anyway it couldn’t go very far since it needed to be in a zip or sit file to be transmited. Tiger forces .app extensions to be shown, Safari warns you when you download an application, and the Finder warns you when you start an app for the first time. Also, you cannot drag an application into the iTunes icon unless you hold some modifier keys, so that would give away the fact that its an app.
Also, Windows Macro viruses (Word/Excel) could only affect OS 9 and obviously Windows.
>>Not just emulation, but if I run WINE which will allow MacOS/Intel to run Windows apps natively, the question is will WINE allow Windows malware to run as well?
In theory, of course WINE could run a Windows virus on a Mac. However, in practice, WINE is still very much beta and tends to have to be adapted to work on a program-by-program basis. Therefore, its immature state would probably/possibly mean that the virus couldn’t run. However, as WINE matures then it will become more and more likely. That said, most Windows viruses are designed to attack Windows-specific system files which won’t, of course, exist on the Mac.
You have got to be kidding.
They say 10,000 to 1 for viruses between platforms (PC vs. Mac) and you’re saying that they can’t even say that?
Can you say ‘bias?’
On second thought, why the hell am I even wasting my time writing this comment?
Name the one OS X virus.
There are several sources that estimate that there are over 100000 Windows viruses. If the ratio of Windows to Mac viruses were 1000 to 1, then there must be 100 Mac viruses. But even if you count the old Mac viruses that won’t affect OS X, there are not even close to a hundred. And unless you can name one, there are no Mac OS X viruses.