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I want to print this article out and wear it on a shirt.

lol Nice Idea...

hahahahaha... that was hilarious bro!

you're calling mac users arrogant... did you read what you've just typed?

regardless, anyone with half a brain knows that no OS is invincible. then again anyone with half a brain won't be fooled into infecting their mac's with this virus either.

The fact that you refer to all mac users as a collective just shows how closed minded (snipped) you are. There's no point in having this argument with you though, because it's clear that your mind is made up regarding "them" (a.k.a. "all Mac users").

But like you say, you don't care, so i'll not comment any more on this...

Last edited by GreyWolfSC on 12 Jun 2009 - 15:56

A lot of assumption going on there buddy. I never said all Mac users...said Mac users. There is a difference. (snipped)

Last edited by GreyWolfSC on 12 Jun 2009 - 16:01

by saying Mac Users it implies you're talking about all of them. What you might have wanted to say is "some Mac Users"

True...and next time I will...maybe...but I didnt clump all Mac users in to one group...people assumed I did and attacked me...but whatever.

Black people steal. Oh, but I didn't mean all of them. But you guys knew what I meant, right? Right?!

Yeah, sorry bud. Sometimes it's better to just admit fault than to defend such a weak statement.

yup +1

AH,

All these people sayin'. Mac you suck. You get what 2 viruses that you have to download while browsing porn. Wow. I am so scared in my arrogant pants. I need diapers now. How many viruses for pcs 200000. Hm keep the mac viruses coming. Only if you can afford a mac. Virus writers with cash flow problems. That is our luck. I wonder if those viruses will work on snow leopard. I got a antivirus on my mac and many times I feel like uninstalling. How crazy is that. I ran my pc vista for 10 years without antivirus and never got infected. I had a hardware firewall and thats it. Plus firm policy installed. No hacks no virus and now i have a mac that is practically bullet proof and I have antivirus running on it just because its free. I still have a firewall. I guess it also depends on intelligence. You got to be smarter than your cat to not get a virus. Now you cant be smarter than your dog just got to beat that cat and your ok.

So me saying "True" and basically agreeing with what Rudy suggested wasnt admitting fault.

I said Mac users before in many other posts and this is the first time someone took it meaning everyone and flew off the handle. But apparently we have some new sensitive people out there, or people who dont post much, and now I need to be more specific...which I will...but I am expecting someone will twist that around to. Hey, keeps me on my toes I guess

Erm, and the virus' you get from downloading torrent files don't count then? Or any of the other Mac Trojans, worms and malware? This isn't "2 virus' for Mac", it's 2 more virus' for Mac.

As for how you acquire the infections, how do you think the majority of Windows users acquire them? On dodgy porn sites and infected p2p downloads? Yep? So what's the difference?



Nice accurate estimation there, now minus the ones that haven't been rendered obsolete through patches. And maybe minus the ones aimed at win 9x while you're at it.



So I'm guessing you meant you didn't have any virus' that you knew about then, eh?

Whenever you generalize a group of people as being stupid, arrogant, fat, or whatever dumb stereotype you wish to throw out there, it's going to backfire on you, unless it's an agreed upon idea.

I think the choice of words you may have been looking for though are "Apple fanboys". Not Apple users. I'm a Microsoft user, AMD user, nVidia user, Coca-Cola abuser... but I'm not a fanboy of any of the companies.

(that's a lie, I'm totally a Coca-Cola fanboy)

I certainly hope that was sarcasm.

o.O

I hope you're kidding.....

anything can be done to any OS, but as of now any "malware" on OSX requires the user to enter his password. So really they deserve it The day something like Blaster comes out for OSX is the day I'll be worried about using OSX

It's funny how many people on Neowin don't understand sarcasm.

right on bro. I had some strange happening with my mac and all I had to do is reboot and the machine returned. This was after I download 100 of files to try out. One of them had something that open like a 100 windows so I press the power off and that just reboot. The machine back to normal. No trace of what ever that was. So I am pretty confident. And snow to my leopard will make it even better. Why the cat names is because cats have crazy reflexes just like the apple computer crazy reflex to please its users. Please me more apple so I have a tech support free experience. No one hour calls to india and talking to a guy with bad english. If I have a question or cant fix something the allways have to go through like 7 levels of techs to help me. That is tiresome cuz the guys keep repeating things I already have done.

Ha! Great picture! Very original. How do you suppose, perhaps it is good to created design for web design company in such cartoons???

+1

If a person is gullible enough to believe they need to install something, wouldn't entering the password be expected?

Actually, no. Only programs that modify system areas on OS X require a password. The fact that something requires a password (when it shouldn't) is usually a red flag that something might not be kosher with it.

Im a mac and have no feathers and dont live in australia. So no sand holes for me. Only a cat that I need to beat on an iq test.

true

Mac ads always said Windows has many viruses.

I'm on Windows and still here, sitting and waiting...

+1

+1

x345345879237459872345. I have several machines at my home running different versions of Windows and Linux with no antivirus software whatsoever. I know it's not the smartest thing to do, but I haven't had a virus yet because i'm not a retard. this article also made me laugh because some of my friends that switched to mac said, and i quote, "i just want to look at porn without getting a virus". good luck guys.

Last edited by donBoomy on 12 Jun 2009 - 16:44

How do you know you haven't caught anything? Do you expect red message box with "Hello from virus - you're infected!". I could bet a million that at least one of your PCs have malware/spyware/virus on them.

Indeed. It seems like they exist, but doesn't infect on a scale to speak of, despite most not running AV tools on Macs.

Nah, don't be so sure about that. I don't use to run AV tools on Windows, but still do manual checkups every now and then. It has never had any infection to speak of, just at worst malicious scripts downloaded from web sites. All this depends a LOT on how you use your computer. And if that was on Windows of all OS targets, I wouldn't worry much about Macs.

How do I know? Simple. Nothing spectacular happens. I don't have any suspicious process, nobody ever said me "hey, the email you sent me the other day.... well it was a virus", my processor isn't running at 100% all the time, my hard drive doesn't fill itself by itself, I don't have any strange popup window that appears, my Internet usage represents what I'm really downloading and uploading (my ISP offers statistics for that), etc.

Look, I'll be honest and say : I'd like to believe OS X is as vulnerable as Windows. But right now, there's more than 100 000 viruses on Windows. The virus database on the Mac OS X has absolutely nothing to do with such a big number, thus it is less vulnerable right now. If someone decides tomorrow to invent 1 000 000 viruses on OS X, then yes, I'd agree that things would change and I would think the opposite thing about OS X and Windows.

Let's take this comparison : I'd be safer in my head if humans had a max number of 10 diseases on the planet. But the reality is, we can have well over 100 000 diseases or more. I don't like that and feel less safe even though I'm rarely hit. Same thing with computers. (I'm not taking in count the risk, because I'm supposing for example that, no matter what planet you live on, 20% of the illnesses will be really dangerous, 80% won't... so in the end it won't influence anything)

should have been..." Hey, I am virus. Take me to your leader" :-)

He didn't ask you, but I guess you replied anyway.

Yeah I noticed right after but decided to leave it there... there were too many +1s against me.

Dude, I *thought* I was clean. Then the other day, I downloaded 2 MP3s from iTunes and they were infected - from ITUNES!

Emailed them and all they did was credit me the $1.98 for the songs. No message like "we'll look into it" - 'cause they are so Mac centric and arrogant.

Dude, it has to be something that infected your MP3 - I can't believe Apple or any other serious company like this would put viruses in iTunes. Plus, I'm not sure an Apple guy really touches the music. It has to be all automated with servers and everything.

Not to mention that the iTunes store doesn't sell MP3s. Maybe some podcasts are in MP3 format, but those are not sold. Not to mention that millions of other people would now be infected with something.

Mark, the "glee" doesn't come from seeing Mac users infected with malware but rather knowing that it has happened despite Apple's promise that Macs are immune. Sooner or later Apple is going to have to back-track on their promise and re-think how the promote their machines.

We've watched them promote the ability to run Windows as a top selling feature and then go and spit on Microsoft. Now we are waiting for their reaction to seeing Mac users infected with a virus after promising that it could never happen.

Smarter consumers are going to wonder what else Apple has told them that isn't quite true.

The glee (for me anyway) is knowing that Apple will eventually have to tell their customers that Macs are not, in fact, immune to malware.

Quite, it's not glee, it's schadenfreude combined with a sense that karma is in fact real and universal.

The reason that Windows systems have historically had so many variants of viruses (this isn't even counting successful truly transmissable viruses, just the ones that are out there floating around somewhere) is up for debate, but some of them are obvious, there are a lot of "DIY" virus development kits out there that are used to mix and match existing virus code. Any idiot can use them, and this is part of the reason that heuristics are useful for detecting new viruses.

Realistically, once kits like that start showing up that target the Mac platform, you'll start seeing more viruses on that platform.

Trojans are no novelty to Mac OS X (I remember there was an iWork'09 torrent infected with trojan a couple of months ago...). But, if I recall correctly, Apple ads talk about viruses. Not the same.

There aren't a whole lot of virii for Windows anymore either. That's not where the (illegal) money's at. Trojans and keyloggers for theft, spam, and botnets are the malware of the day, and they've become more numerous for OS X in the past year.

I agree. It's especially tiresome as so many Mac users, including me, *are* aware of that there are trojans on Macs, just much less common than on Windows. There's still the obligatory Neowin flood of comments like "Oh, see, Mac isn't invulnerable at all, like you said!!11"

It's sickening. It's as annoying as Mac users rambling on about every little security patch for Windows.

These kind of crapstorms are among the major reasons I'm caring less and less to even read the comments here. It's so stupid. Stupid. Every time there are 50+ comments on articles like these, you know what 7 out of 10 will be about. They will be about ignorance and bile.

Mark, I think the "glee" comes from years of listening to people act like OS X is sent from God. "My Mac can't get a virus! Windows sucks!" I just hope this can wipe some smug away. It's doubtful, but we'll see.

Ok, I'll give you that being really superior and overconfident can be really annoying.

But being so politically correct when talking about OSes isn't too good either. Let's say there is 1 average virus on OS X and 100 average on Vista, some will say that both systems are equally at risks. Now, come on, we all know this is wrong mathematically. You have more chances of being hit if there's more chances...

On another note, I still cannot believe that so many people lose their lives in writing viruses. What's the point? The database is over 100 000 now, people should really get a life. I don't see what can make them feel so good in doing harm... Just imagine how many man-hours were spent in creating 100 000 viruses. And some of them were probably tested on test machines and test networks too... ridiculous.

thats the number one cuase of 99.99% of computer problems these days end user idiocy (not that im saying 99.99% of end users are idiots) whether it be Mac M$ or linux or any other os you care to name
as forest gumps mama used to say stupid is as stupid does

Apple has done enough ads to set themselves apart from "PC" ... so that's what people are referring to. In Apple world: PC's run Windows (or Linu and Mac run OS X.

You're right, unfortunately lots of people think of PC as a Windows Computer

It is probably because in the early 80's the term "IBM-compatible " computers was born. Later after IBM's decline, it was changed to "PC-compatible". These computers were generally Intel-based with MSDOS/Windows operating systems (vs the Motorola powered Apples).

Apple world, PC = Windows.
Real world, PC = Personal Computer with any OS.

there's a large amount of Windows users without anti virus and they are doing fine, I doubt the world will end for Apple because of this

But Windows doesn't claim their OS is invincible.

Exactly. I know a few people who've bought a Mac simply because they don't have to fool around with making sure their computer is clean. Oh, and they have the money apparently too.

Overall, it'd be a real kick in the face to those who dished out all that money to step over the inconveniences. I also don't believe Apple can tout their Macs as immune to viruses anymore since that would be false advertising...

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/netw...macedition.html

Obviously Apple will try to market Macs as less suspectible to viruses though. After all, they are, because it is a smaller target. But that's not to say it's immune. I don't think Apple use to say Macs are immune. Please bring up a source if that's indeed true. Usually it's just carefully crafted words to tell that Macs don't suffer as big problems with virus attacks as Windows. Because they don't. But YES. There are viruses in the Mac universe too, they're just not nearly as frequently seen.

They will:
-repress
-reinstall
-deny
-never speak publicly about it. ever.

General users don't notice things like that, though. It could say it requires a QuickTime plug-in just as easily.

but they're aiming this malware at dumb people and dumb people wouldn't know that

Troll, IE on Mac has it too.

why is he a troll
most people who has a mac do not install IE

LOL

You're the Troll.

Support for IE on Apple PCs ended years ago, and it hasn't been available since early 2006.

OK so no IE then what about Office for mac and no im not trying to be a troll but there is a lot of software out that runs on both OSx and Windows bound to be some crossover vulnerabilities that effect both

I don't even think it supported ActiveX.. I downloaded it, used it for a few minutes and sites, then never really used it again.

Uncle Steve Jobs is a salesman, for that reason they only tell you what you want to hear and not the stuff that you really should know.

lmao, never noticed that!

macs:scam

yks eht ni "god" taerg eht deppihsrow ew emit s'ti kniht I ,wonk'Y

Now that is just too funny as I've never noticed that... Haha nice one.

Yep...And they are technically harmless creatures....j/k

That's entirely correct. If a user won't think twice about opening an attachment in their email that has .jpg.exe in the filename, then it's pretty unlikely that being prompted to click "yes" or enter their password is going to be much different, either. It's all about getting people used to being skeptical (very skeptical) and taking control, knowing that they shouldn't be receiving those prompts normally, and that they should stop and closely examine what's going on if that prompt does come up.

The biggest complaint with Windows Vista's UAC was that it came up for practically everything. From what I understand, that isn't Microsoft's fault - programmers were still coding "the wrong way" and were triggering those warnings left and right. As a result, a person really would get used to clicking "yes" (or accept, whichever it is) all the time, because for many of the things that they do, that prompt comes up constantly.

(I've seen some people say that it barely comes up, but having used Windows Vista in a virtual machine for a few weeks, I can say that it comes up often enough that even I got tired of looking at the details behind the request.)

With OS X (and Ubuntu, in my experience) the prompt doesn't come up quite as often. Most programs are very good about not requiring it at all, and the only times I see the request are for modifying system settings or installing/deleting/modifying a program. Having it come up so infrequently makes it easier for me to emphasize to my non-techie family members that if it comes up, you should wonder why.

Apple really messed up by having the first account be an administrator account, though. Because of that, you really barely receive that password prompt, if at all. I always change the system setup so that the most-used account is just a "standard" account, rather than an administrator. That blunder on Apple's part removes a huge set of potential security gains.

There is one side benefit of having a password prompt over a window that prompts you to click yes or no, and that is physical security. Nobody can alter my preferences or install/delete programs without knowing the password to my administrator account. They could still mess up a ton of other stuff, of course But it's an added comfort to know it's highly unlikely (but not impossible, I'm sure) that someone will be able to slip something onto my system, even if they have physical access to my logged-in account.

You made an excellent point. No OS is completely secure. But letting users to believe that OS X is secure and condition them to do dumb things is very bad judgement on Apple's part.
In addition, we only have Apple's claim as to how secure OS X is. But how do we really know that is the case. Saying that it is secure must mean that it has been tested against various threats: viruses, Trojans, malware, spyware. But, we don't see any proof of such a test. Do Apple care to provide the results of such a test? Windows on the other hand is tested continuously by both dumb users and virus, etc coders.

How are they to know they don't need Active X. Who ever told them?

Stupid fanboys who bash one side and then claim to have both products to appear "unbiased"!!

And the unpatched Java vulnerability (that apple takes sun's code and make a version for apple) doesn't count?

You really have no idea why that statement was completely stupid, do you?

Yea, and there are MANY people out there that will enter the root password thinking they need to install the update. You may be smart enough not to do so...but not everyone is. Especially with Apple stating Macs dont get malware or viruses...with statements like that, it gives the illusion that Mac users have nothing to worry about.

If you don't have a mac why do you even care?

Windows XP can get a virus by visiting a site
OSX can do the same but they also need a admin password to actually install the virus

Again this topic is the same over the top wailings again by bashers trying to create something out of nothing

FIRE BAD
BEER GOOOOOOD

Sorry, had to do it.

Yep, I've always predicted that.

+1 I TOTALLY AGREE

+1 I TOTALLY AGREE

No one/Nothing is secured these days... Even MAC boys/gals are not secured

Do you remember the time that Apple was doing so bad that Microsoft pumped up software in the mac market? I am talking about IE and office and messenger. I saw a foto of bill gates holding steve jobs shoulder in a protective manner. Wonder where his other hand was....

In my opinion, MS should of let apple die

This is true... no computer is safe now