

Mac/iPad security perceptions will soon vanish - hankejh
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/coming-soon-to-a-mac-near-you-serious-malware/3212

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scottw
Reminds me of some similar predictions:

"This is almost certainly the year of the OS X exploit" (Feb 2006)
<http://www.securityfocus.com/news/113758>

iPhone to be target of hackers (December 2007)
[http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/121107-report-
iphone-t...](http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/121107-report-iphone-to-be-
target.html)

Apple has a few _extremely_ good security engineers (two of which were stolen
from FreeBSD and whom I know personally). I've never believed OS X is bullet-
proof, but it sure beats anything else I'd recommend to my 60+ year old mom.
She's had more security problems with her garage than with her computer.

~~~
iqster
Same here. I recommend the iPad to older folks regularly. You are correct that
there is no magic that prevents iOS from being compromised ... but their
security model has been working well so far.

I taught a computer class to seniors in a community center a while ago ... I
was horrified at the number of toolbars and browser plugins these people had
managed to gather on their "mainstream" browsers/operating systems. My advice
to them ... don't do online banking online!

~~~
hankejh
"their security model has been working well so far" -- that is to say, the Mac
security model, which has hardly been tested at all (relative to say,
Windows), has been working well -- which isn't saying much.

~~~
scottw
That may be, but it's been a blissful 10+ years. :)

Ribbing aside, the OS X security model is, generally speaking, the Unix
security model, which has been around a lot longer than Windows. Henry Spencer
is attributed with saying "Those who do not understand UNIX are condemned to
reinvent it -- badly." Perhaps OS X has done it badly, but perhaps not as
badly as others.

I agree that lack of security problems is not indicative of good security, but
Apple does seem to be making good decisions. As I said earlier, they've got
some super smart security people working for them and letting them drive the
security model.

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syncsynchalt
"Security experts know, of course, that there’s nothing magical about Macs
when it comes to security."

I suppose a conceptually simpler security model isn't "magical" but in my
experience it usually does improve the security of a system.

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demallien
From the article: "With the Trojan installed on a Mac" Well, sure, but of
course installing a trojan on a non-jailbroken iPad is pretty much impossible.
And with the introduction of the Mac App Store it's going to be increasingly
harder to convince Mac users to install non-App Store apps too.

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nickolai
TLDR version > Soon, even lynx users will no longer be safe! Feel the fear and
buy our sponsored antivirus software!

I am somewhat doubtful regarding a mac-bashing article in the "microsoft
report" folder. But maybe that's just me...

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iqster
I call BS on the headline. I don't understand how this applies to the iPad.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
The browser.

