Most Mac users today live in a fantasy land. They are of the false belief that their machines are not prone to being hacked. The sad thing is the number of software tools available to protect Mac users from real attacks on their machines out their is severely lacking.
If you are a Mac owner it is far past time that you wake up and realize that you are as much a sitting duck out their as Windows users. The main difference between Windows users and Mac users is pretty simple.
Windows users expect to get hacked and have several layers of protection from firewalls to software protection. Mac users in turn usually have absolutely no software protection. But hey Mac’s cannot be hacked correct? Infoworld
Disclaimer: I own two Macs and also Windows based PC’s
I don’t think it is a platform issue. I think it is an ‘end-user ignorance’ issue. Most Mac users don’t have virus protection (a bad idea in my opinion) and a lot of Windows users do. The issue is that virus protection is a maintenance issue, not a one time fix. You HAVE to keep the virus definitions up to date. You HAVE to upgrade your scanning software from time to time. You HAVE to understand what the little boxes that pop-up are talking about. Do I want to allow “CreditCardNumberDuplicator.exe” access to the internet? Sure, as long as this pesky window gets out of my way. No matter which platform you are on, people need to be more responsible in maintaining their computers. Look, if you can’t change the oil in your car, you take it to a professional. The same should hold true for maintaining your computer.
Todd I think you nailed this one. Mac users are told by salespeople,pundits,and the old media that they don’t have to worry about being hacked. Many operate as admins. and never bother to turn on their firewall which is off by default in Leopard. Pretty soon, the hacker nation is going to realize Macs are the low hanging fruit on the tree, and have at it. I was also surprised that Ubuntu didn’t come with a firewall but one was easily installed in the latest 8.04 beta. Still Unix based OS’s are very hackable, either on a Mac or in Linux.