[Hidden-tech] Security: Mac vs. Windows is no longer an argument

[Chris Hoogendyk]

Tom Adams- Reelife Productions wrote:
> hah... now why would you go and pry the lid off that can of worms:)??
>
> On Dec 4, 2008, at 8:04 AM, "Edbride-PR" <Ed at edbride-pr.com 
> <mailto:Ed at edbride-pr.com>> wrote:
>> The list has been quiet lately on the subject of malware 
>> vulnerability and the supposed superiority of Mac over Windows. The 
>> story excerpted below, from InformationWeek (Dec. 2), should put the 
>> argument to rest, albeit in a "no winner" fashion:
>>     <<..Apple has always boasted 
>> <http://www.apple.com/getamac/whymac/> that "Mac OS 
>> <http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=OS&x=&y=> 
>> X isn't plagued by constant attacks from viruses and malware" because 
>> its operating system 
>> <http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=operating%20system&x=&y=> 
>> was "designed with security in mind."
>>     But about two weeks ago, Apple updated 
>> <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2550> an old note on its support Web 
>> site 
>> <http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=Web%20site&x=&y=> 
>> advising its customers to use more than one antivirus 
>> <http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=antivirus&x=&y=> 
>> application to make their computers more secure, affirming a 
>> longstanding divergence between its marketing and its technical 
>> concerns. ..>>

Oh, come on. It's not a can of worms. It's a religious war. ;-)

The latest on that page is that it was over a year old and got removed 
because of all the commotion 
(http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/03/apples-virus-support-page-disappears-over-misunderstanding). 
So, one could interpret it as someone (a typically paranoid security 
specialist maybe) put the document up, Steve heard the commotion and 
ordered it taken down.

As someone who focuses on IT security, there is almost no such thing as 
too much paranoia. Take a system you think is secure and put it on a 
private address behind a firewall, just because. Log all access, audit 
it regularly, and limit access to only known . . . .  well, you may 
begin to get the idea. I typically spend several days locking down a new 
Sun server running Solaris (Unix System V variant). If anyone is 
interested in this sort of thing, for most major platforms, see 
http://www.nsa.gov/snac/



-- 
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Chris Hoogendyk

-
   O__  ---- Systems Administrator
  c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
 (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

<hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>

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Erdös 4