Apples for the Army

Mac · 2007-12-24T06:22:52.000Z

http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2007/12/20/apple-army-hackers-tech-security-cx_ag_1221army.html

Though Apple machines are still pricier than their Windows counterparts, the added security they offer might be worth the cost, says Wallington. He points out that Apple's X Serve servers, which are gradually becoming more commonplace in Army data centers, are proving their mettle. "Those are some of the most attacked computers there are. But the attacks used against them are designed for Windows-based machines, so they shrug them off," he says.
Apple, which declined to comment, has long argued its hardware is less hackable than comparable PCs. Jonathan Broskey, a former Apple employee who now heads the Army’s Apple program, argues that the Unix core at the center of the Mac OS operating system makes it easier to lock down a Mac than a Windows platform.

system · 2007-12-24T06:54:06.000Z

Macs are great and everything… But… it’s only a matter of time before they are getting hacked daily and getting infected daily. But wouldn’t Windows computers just need a good firewall to be as safe as a mac? Example: New Comodo firewall protects against unknown malware too… A firewall helping fight malware. Seems safe to me.

bob3160 · 2007-12-24T12:47:05.000Z

Unfortunately just another statistical advertising gimmick.
You can’t compare Apples and Oranges (Windows)
On an equal playing field, both are equally vulnerable.

FreewheelinFrank · 2007-12-24T13:37:50.000Z

You can't compare Apples and Oranges (Windows)

Well, there are plenty of people who don’t agree there.

Microsoft for one compare their security to Mac and Linux on the basis of vulnerability counts:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/secmgmt/sm1007.mspx

The Linux and Mac advocates concentrate on system architecture:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/?p=311

http://www.commercialventvac.com/~jeffs/WindowsVsLinuxSecurity.html

Exactly which side is right is up for discussion. :

szc · 2007-12-24T13:41:19.000Z

Goose17 post:2:

Macs are great and everything… But… it’s only a matter of time before they are getting hacked daily and getting infected daily. But wouldn’t Windows computers just need a good firewall to be as safe as a mac? Example: New Comodo firewall protects against unknown malware too… A firewall helping fight malware. Seems safe to me.

Except the usual PC computer crashes two/three times per week. Using Apple is such a pleasure. I have both, so I can be as objective as possible. I would always choose Apple over PC. The only drawback of this, is that Apple computers are still quite expensive… or maybe not ? Take a look at new 20" iMac (don’t even have to go with 24") and all specs inside. Try to build something like that with PC configuration using same hardware parts and try to stay in same price range. Not an easy task…

bob3160 · 2007-12-24T16:31:45.000Z

The comparison made here has to do with security.
Since most hackers aren’t going to choose a relatively unused system,
there are definitely fewer attacks against the Mac.
But, the reason has to do with popularity.
When Apple and Microsoft are on an even footing as far as the number
of users are concerned, then you’ll find as many attacks against a Mac as you now
find against a Microsoft.

szc · 2007-12-24T18:58:08.000Z

bob3160 post:6:

The comparison made here has to do with security.
Since most hackers aren’t going to choose a relatively unused system,
there are definitely fewer attacks against the Mac.
But, the reason has to do with popularity.
When Apple and Microsoft are on an even footing as far as the number
of users are concerned, then you’ll find as many attacks against a Mac as you now
find against a Microsoft.

That’s true, and I fully agree… well, not fully… 99%

There will be as many attacks as you find now against Windows, maybe even more because it would be something fresh to attack and play with… but I am sure it would be a lot less successful attacks against UNIX based machines, than against Windows OS.

Mac · 2007-12-25T01:44:10.000Z

Unfortunately just another statistical advertising gimmick. You can't compare Apples and Oranges (Windows) On an equal playing field, both are equally vulnerable.

Well this is not a advertising gimmick. This is about our Military recognizing the power of Unix based systems like Linux/Mac

SasH post:7:

bob3160 post:6:

The comparison made here has to do with security.
Since most hackers aren’t going to choose a relatively unused system,
there are definitely fewer attacks against the Mac.
But, the reason has to do with popularity.
When Apple and Microsoft are on an even footing as far as the number
of users are concerned, then you’ll find as many attacks against a Mac as you now
find against a Microsoft.

That’s true, and I fully agree… well, not fully… 99%

There will be as many attacks as you find now against Windows, maybe even more because it would be something fresh to attack and play with… but I am sure it would be a lot less successful attacks against UNIX based machines, than against Windows OS.

We may never really know. Even though Mac Market share has grown significantly (or nearly doubled depending h what source you read) since the switch to Intel. I doubt that we will ever see mac OS X with more than 15% of the Computer market. Windows is just to deeply entrenched.

But since Unix based systems have a small market at the moment I think we should use that to our advantage, and apparently more and more people are

system · 2007-12-25T03:37:21.000Z

SasH post:5:

Except the usual PC computer crashes two/three times per week. Using Apple is such a pleasure. I have both, so I can be as objective as possible.

I keep seeing people talk about their pc crashes. I have never had a crash on xp in all the years I’ve been using it. I do lots of graphics editing for fine art reproduction with very high res files and play very demanding games. The only time my system has crashed was due to a bad device driver. I’ve had NUMEROUS crashes on Linux based OS’s.

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