COMMENTARY: Apple’s new “we don’t have viruses” TV ad

Posted by: kurtsh | May 19, 2006

COMMENTARY: Apple’s new “we don’t have viruses” TV ad

I’ve watched quietly as Apple has taken potshots at us in their recent TV ads. But recently they released a TV ad talking about viruses between the MacOS platform and the Windows platform which to me is really deceptive about an issue that the entire computer community faces: Security.

Security is an area of technology that’s a topic that crosses platforms and technologies. The concern for security is also not specific to the technologies marketshare: People should always be concerned at the same levels regardless of what OS or application they’re using. Implying that you "don’t have to worry" on a Macintosh or that you don’t have to follow the same guidelines and procedures as on a Windows PC is foolish as any security specialist would tell you. One intrusion technique on one platform can usually be leveraged in some way on any other platform. It’s not so much about the specific implementation of the vulnerability as much as it’s about the technique used.

So why the dearth of Mac Viruses? Ctrl-Alt-Del posted this which pretty much sums up the fallacy of Apple’s ad: http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20060513

In case, you don’t believe this logic, here’s a few sites to ponder:

Security scares mount for Apple Macintosh users
"In the past week, users of Apple’s Mac computers — rarely touched by viruses, worms and other nasty stuff — have been warned of at least three security threats. This week, security experts detected a flaw in the way Apple software handles downloaded files. The flaw could give attackers back-door access to Macs if their owners open malicious files from bogus websites and e-mail."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2006-02-23-mac-security_x.htm
Apple Mac still potential Typhoid Mary warns McAfee exec
"A senior executive from a leading security vendor has warned that Apple Macintosh computers pose a potential threat to the security of networks because of their ability to harbour infected files that only attack Microsoft Windows systems and lax security practices from Mac users."
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/3864/0/
Mac OS X web server security competition over in six hours
"Late last month, a Swedish Mac fan posted a web site that challenged all comers to "rm my Mac," referring to the age-old Unix utility used to delete files. The machine was a PowerPC-based Mac mini… …Six hours later, the machine was hacked and the web page defaced.
"It probably took about 20 or 30 minutes to get root on the box. Initially I tried looking around the box for certain mis-configurations and other obvious things but then I decided to use some unpublished exploits—of which there are a lot for Mac OS X," the hacker said."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060306-6321.html
Apple Releases a Whopping 43 Security Updates
Apple last week released a massive security update package for their Mac OS X operating system as well as updates for the QuickTime player bundled with Mac OS X. The update fixes a number of security issues including a number of code execution vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to compromise Mac OS X and run undesirable programs.
http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=2341
Apple OSX related viruses on McAfee Threat Center
http://search.mcafee.com/search?q=OSX&site=Virus&num=10&btnG=Search&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&getFields=description&ie=UTF-8&client=default_frontend&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&=&partialfields=&getfields=description&filter=0

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