500,000 Infected Macs

[woods]

Mac store in the mall says Macs can not get viruses. I was looking at a iPod touch as a possible gift when the employee tried to sell me a computer with it.

After I asked him to explain his claim that Macs can't get viruses he said "well windows programs are the most infected and can't run on a Mac" after I asked him to clarify he said "oh we don't make the claim that Macs running any third party software can't get viruses". I guess they just can't get windows library using viruses.

I'm not one to brand bash and I think apple has done a lot of cool stuff in their history of innovation but I can't stand false advertising.

I walked away without buying anything.

The truth is Macs run a bsd like UNIX clone. Check out Darwin it's Macs OS without their desktop environment. It uses gnu/open source instead. "It's harder to get a virus" was once true because there were not as many Macs as there are now so our wasn't worth the effort when you could attack windows in larger amounts.

Now each computer is faster with better internet and a small number of machines is now worth attacking.

add to that there third party runtime environments that are cross platform such as silver light, flash, java, all which become exposed to the internet and all have had major security flaws. Now you have a perfect storm where Linux Mac and windows can share the same infection.

Nobody is safe. A smart informed user is the best defense in any computer use.

Never brand bash our you will end up looking like a fud spreading troll. Use facts and evaluate each product. Don't let pride injure your common sense.

[Meety Peety]

cool story. I simply love how you ASSume so much. You have no idea what any of the specs for my computers really are, yet you call them slow pieces of crap. I love it.

I also love how you say porn/illegal movie download sites are the biggest place for viruses, so obviously that is where the viruses come from.

LoL, its cute how mad you get when someone disagrees with you. Instead of coming back with a rebuttal, you simply start calling names and deterring from my points. Wait, now I know where the screen name came from! Next time, we should have the conversation via Skype so I can watch you put your fingers in your ears and go "neener neener neener, I can't here you".

Yes, you could say I did make assumptions about your computers. I can, however, say that my assumptions were correct for two reasons: 1, you didn't correct me by spouting off how dramatically upgraded the 5 and 7 year old computers were, and 2, you made it a point to mention how old they were to begin with. Had you used them for some kind of base to a build while maybe keeping the same HD and shell, you would have mentioned it, lending a bit of discredit to my claim that they are in fact slow to begin with. Now, bottom line is it's a matter of speculation. You may think they're fast, and you probably think their Core2Duo's are top of the line, but they aren't, period. So rather than calling me an ***, you probably should have used the word "Elitist", which I very much am and would completely agree with you had you called me out on it.

On the point about where viruses come from, you are just plain naive if you think someone acquired that many in such a short time without surfing porn, downloading or streaming bootlegged movies. If someone told you they don't, they lied. I really don't think any decent tech would argue with me on that one. For crying out loud, who hasn't downloaded a game, file or whatever else? Just because you do it doesn't always mean you knew it was illegal (And it isn't always illegal either), so don't need to get your panties in a bunch over it. Regardless,I don't know why you tried to twist my words into "That's where 100% of all viruses come from!" unless you really just had nothing worth while to say and felt like you had to address it. Either way, you just look like a tard. Obviously those are not the sole sources for malware, but it's pretty obvious when someone constantly gets infected over and over that they aren't just going on Youtube and checking emails.

Well this whole thing is pretty off topic now, and quite honestly I don't see much point continuing this conversation any further. Grass is always greener etc etc, have fun with your ancient computers that are you apparently docked Z68's into and still refer to them as 5 and 7 year old computers.

Edit: I will clarify that the whole reason I called you out in the first place was because your post came off as "Well PCs are just riddled with viruses everywhere you go" and I wanted to point out that it can be that way, but only when you use them irresponsibly. The way I see it, your post was basically saying "My Mac is virus free and therefor superior" when from a performance standpoint (And this is not opinion, go look up some benchmarks) a PC with the right components will out perform a Mac any day. Since you went based on performance (Speed issues) I went there too.

[skyscraper]

No platform is safe. But i still went with a mac because I had 4 PC's go to hell on me and Im still using the same mac that is 5 years old that hasnt slowed down a bit. I dont know the specifics of why, since I do the same kind of things on all of them, but its the truth.

[penguinofsleep]

im surprised it took this long for a real virus to get out there for mac.

funny how apple touts no viruses when they've been selling anti-virus programs in their stores for at least a few years now.

[vnguyen297]

Proves that even without a registry viruses can get to them macs!

[ocabj]

Technically, it's not a virus. It's not self-replicating. It's a trojan.

In a forum where we argue the semantics of magazines vs clips, I think it's important to maintain the same technical accuracy in this section, too.

:P

[nanoc]

I have an old HP pavilion for 5 years now and have never had any viruses or malware. It all comes down to the user. Apple, PC, or even a Linux distro, it doesn't matter if the user will just install the malware themselves. My recommendation I'm pretty sure they support many browsers is to get , AdBlock Plus and get No-script. That should keep you safe from most websites and then get a good AV software one that does realtime scanning to protect yourself from all the stuff you may download and you should be good with any OS you choose.

[jonzer77]

No platform is safe. But i still went with a mac because I had 4 PC's go to hell on me and Im still using the same mac that is 5 years old that hasnt slowed down a bit. I dont know the specifics of why, since I do the same kind of things on all of them, but its the truth.

I made the switch to mac for my laptop when I noticed my gf's 6 year old macbook still ran like it was new. Windows got A LOT better about not having to reinstall the OS periodically when they introduced Windows 7 though. I have windows 7 on my quad core desktop PC that I use for encoding video and I haven't had to reinstall the OS once in the few years I have owned it so PC's can be just as reliable. I know it's odd but I like both OS's and they both have their uses and since I don't play computer games I like my macbook air. I like the fact that it instantly turns on from sleep mode and runs really smooth and I like my desktop PC because I always like to be able to upgrade and add more power(Tim Allen voice lol).

[mike_the_wino]

My wife's Apple seems to have this. She claims to have updated today. Guess I will have to check when I get home. :-/

[nmerced]

My wife's Apple seems to have this. She claims to have updated today. Guess I will have to check when I get home. :-/

There is an update if you have Java installed.

[the86d]

Ignorance is bliss...