Comments on: McAfee Seeds Mac Virus Threat FUD http://www.darknet.org.uk/2006/05/mcafee-seeds-mac-virus-threat-fud/ Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing & Computer Security Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:15:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: kurt wismer http://www.darknet.org.uk/2006/05/mcafee-seeds-mac-virus-threat-fud/#comment-1090 kurt wismer Mon, 08 May 2006 14:21:31 +0000 http://www.darknet.org.uk/2006/05/mcafee-seeds-mac-virus-threat-fud/#comment-1090 a) the points that the original article's author thinks are there to scare people are factually true - vulnerabilities are being discovered at an increased rate over 2003, there is now targetted malware for osx, and popularity will lead to greater scrutiny both by the good guys and the bad guys (and itunes and ipods are potential vectors that people will try to exploit because of their ubiquity on the mac platform)... b) the point that you think is meant to scare people is just them saying 'its not a big deal now, but it could become one if the mac becomes more popular', which is also factually true... c) stop believing in the resistence of *nix platforms to viruses... the first academic study of viruses (back in the early 80's) had them operating and successfully spreading under a professionally administered unix environment outside of the researcher's direct control (ie. he wasn't root)... a) the points that the original article’s author thinks are there to scare people are factually true – vulnerabilities are being discovered at an increased rate over 2003, there is now targetted malware for osx, and popularity will lead to greater scrutiny both by the good guys and the bad guys (and itunes and ipods are potential vectors that people will try to exploit because of their ubiquity on the mac platform)…

b) the point that you think is meant to scare people is just them saying ‘its not a big deal now, but it could become one if the mac becomes more popular’, which is also factually true…

c) stop believing in the resistence of *nix platforms to viruses… the first academic study of viruses (back in the early 80’s) had them operating and successfully spreading under a professionally administered unix environment outside of the researcher’s direct control (ie. he wasn’t root)…

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