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    How true is this whole "No virus for Macs" business?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by cdnalsi, Jun 23, 2007.

  1. cdnalsi

    cdnalsi Food for the funky people

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    I mean, is there really such thing as 0 viruses and/or spyware/whatever for the Macs? Is it actually true?
     
    cdnalsi, Jun 23, 2007
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  2. mattireland

    mattireland It used to be the iLand..

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    No, it's just most people use Windows and therefore naturally most viruses are going to be programmed for the majority. Only like 10% of people use Macs so there's no point programming a Virus if not many people are going to suffer.

    Gd question.
     
    mattireland, Jun 23, 2007
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  3. Homer_Jay_Thompson

    Homer_Jay_Thompson blathering blatherskite

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    Only 5% of computer users are Mac users, so why would anyone make a virus to infect 5% of computers?
     
    Homer_Jay_Thompson, Jun 23, 2007
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  4. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Most hackers are after the fame and profit, so they go for the biggest target. There have been proof-of-concept 'viruses' that have been demonstrated to work, but no one had ever really used that code for malicious purposes.

    So it is an OS that has never really had to defend itself, has limited security software available, and is growing to take a larger portion of the OS pie. Once it gets large enough, we probably will see some attacks.
     
    Greg, Jun 23, 2007
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  5. cashmonee

    cashmonee Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    There are currently no OS X viruses in the wild. Part of that is due to its market share, part of it is due to better security policies.
     
    cashmonee, Jun 23, 2007
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  6. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

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    To answer the original question, there are no viruses for Mac OS X (although this was disputed a few months back, someone saying they discovered the first virus for Mac OS X).

    I agree with cashmonee. A large part of it has to do with Mac OS X having a significantly smaller market share compared to Windows, but Apple also does a better job of defending against viruses and spyware on the Mac. Mac OS X is UNIX-based, and also has more controls to protect your computer such as Parental Controls (found in OS X first!) and requiring an administrator password every time you want to install anything (even if you're on administrator account). This helps secure Mac OS X more than Windows does.

    So my point is I don't doubt that there'd be more viruses for the Mac if they had 90% market share, but not to the level of viruses for Windows unless the hackers got really really smarter.
     
    Sam, Jun 23, 2007
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