[Hidden-tech] Windows security (sic)

[David Mertz, Ph.D.]

On May 27, 2005, at 1:50 PM, Mark Bucciarelli wrote:
> It also doesn't hold up when you look at the virus counts and compare 
> to desktop share:
> - there are about 60,000 viruses known for Windows, 40 or so for the 
> Macintosh, and perhaps 40 for Linux.

Good points overall Mark.  But you vastly overstate the number of 
"viruses" for Mac OSX and/or Linux.  It certainly comes nowhere close 
to 40 for either (Mac Classic had a couple minor ones, it is true).  
What gets called a virus on those unix-like systems is always a 
"theoretical attack that might work if you can already 'get root', or 
if the user cooperates to a high degree with the attack."

The number of historical "live" viruses for either OSX or Linux is 
exactly zero.  And the worst attack that could ever conceivably be 
developed for either is far less serious than the sort of thing a 
Windows machine gets infected with on a daily basis.

Remember, friends don't let friends run Windows!

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