Sophos' prescription: GET A MAC.

[Child of Cupertino]

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=15155&Page=1&pagePos=1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5150508.stm

[Tim]

I've almost forgotten what it's like to deal with virus threats.

:d

[Tim]

reformat????


What the hell is that?

oh yea. The thing I have to do on the PC every year.

[Just Doug1]

I wonder how many of those Trojan infestations are compliments of Sony's rootkit.

[Tim]

probably not 70,000
;)

[Child of Cupertino]

No. When you've got an MS security exec himself actually saying that sometime he best thing is to just "nuke a hard drive from orbit and start over", that big a problem aint just coming from Sony.

[Just Doug1]

No. When you've got an MS security exec himself actually saying that sometime he best thing is to just "nuke a hard drive from orbit and start over", that big a problem aint just coming from Sony.
I agree, but a good bit of the crap that causes problems aren't native to the daily Windows operation, which is why the biggest problem for many is being victims of social engineering.

If you get duped into downloading a trojan because you have to see the latest Paris Hilton boob pics, you're pretty much getting what you deserve.

IMO anyway.

I guess my next question would be to Sophos themselves; being "Are they saying that their product isn't up to the task of protecting their client base?"

[Child of Cupertino]

I agree. Social engineering is a platform agnostic tactic -- but the malware that takes advatage of it is NOT. As a result, there are FAR less incedewnces on the Mac platform.

But I am indeed referring to the persistant, most tenacious malware that targets Windows, and Microsft seems unable to overcome them:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/041006-infosec.html

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1945808,00.asp

[Tim]

It's kinda like saying, yea, our boat hole plugger works real great. Except when you boat is 70% holes, it's time to consider a new boat. One without so many damn holes fool.
;)

[Just Doug1]

Then we can likely agree that the complacency which pervades the average users psyche is going to unleash holy terror when a truly evil MAC bug gets out in the wild.

You're not immune, only currently being given a free pass.

[Tim]

no not immune. But the fact that there hasn't even been ONE virus, or ONE spyware is testament to the fact that while not completely immune, OS X is a fortress compared to windows.

I mean come on, just clicking on something? That's ridiculous.

The day I type my admin password to allow something access to my system files or worse install itself is the day I deserve it.