Originally Posted by
Scott Shepherd
So if I understand the logic right, if you have a boat with 100 holes in it and you have to spend your time bailing water out day after day, or, you could get a new boat with 1 hole in it, you'd keep the one with the 100 holes in it because the one with 1 hole will be getting more holes some time in the future, maybe?
I'll take the boat with 1 hole and worry about the other holes when they come to light. If you're really worried about MacDefender or MacGuard, run an anti-virus program on the Mac. They are readily available.
And you're assuming that all these issues are happening on the admin account. If the users aren't admin status, none of them are getting through.
Implying things like the PC has 100 security holes and the Mac has one just isn't true. The Mac likely has MORE security holes than the PC. They just haven't been exploited until now. They are beginning to get exploited.
In terms of the admin account, again, that is unfortunately not true. From my link above:
Before we dive into the details, let me make a brief comment here about “arbitrary code execution.” Arbitrary code execution is a euphemism for a successful buffer overflow.If you’re interested in learning more about buffer overflows, there is a decent
write-up on Wikipedia. The outcome of a successful buffer overflow, is that a hacker gains control of the execution thread and can perform any number of actions,
which may or may not include performing actions as the system’s administrator. With administrator privileges, a hacker may be able to install a Trojan. Even without administrator privileges, arbitrary code still executes with the user’s privileges, which provides more than enough opportunity to ruin someone’s day.
