Re: [OT] OS security design (was: elder parent-proofing a computer)

On Sun, 24 Jun 2012, Ben Scott wrote:
>   This is really rather off-topic, but as a professional sysadmin, I 
> feel security is a critical topic worth addressing.

> On Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 6:20 PM, JC Dill <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> Just wait until the Mac gets seriously targeted....
> >
> > Oh please, not this FUD.  Not on inet-access.  Please!  Can't I count
> > on THIS group to have more sense than this?
> >
> > The Mac OS is inherently more secure ...
> 
>   The security design of the OS has little to nothing to do with
> almost all of the security attacks being perpetrated today.  In
> particular, it doesn't matter what the OS does if the user tells it to
> allow the attack.  Further, keeping the OS secured is only a means to
> an end.  If the attacks can operate entirely under the privileges of
> the user, it doesn't really matter what the OS is.
> 
>   Now that the Mac has really started to succeed again, attackers are
> starting to attack that platform again.  Mac malware in the wild was
> basically zero even as recently as a year ago.  Now there are at least
> a few active threats.  That's the price of success -- Apple is now a
> target worth looking at.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/258183/apple_quietly_pulls_claims_of_virus_immunity.html#tk.rss_news

I, too, am a UN*X admin. And I am not an alarmist by nature. This 
Koolaid has a strange aftertaste.

--
Kris Kirby, KE4AHR
Disinformation Analyst
-- 
Eat sushi frequently. - Avi
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