Quote:
Originally posted by Halm
If perhaps you had read the context of what I was saying, I too believe that "security through obscurity" is not too smart.
My point was that as Mac and Linux gain popularity, there will be attacks. Quote CNN:
"And Symantec identified six threats of malicious code written for the Mac OS X operating system in the first half of 2006, versus zero in the second half of 2005 and two the year before that."
That is nothing compared to MS, but there wasn't much to worry about in the early '90's either.
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Apple does not practice security through obscurity. It's a false statement. It is not the reason that the platform has been secure.
The whole notion of it is an opinion that I have never seen verified or proven. Did someone interview all the hackers? Is that their response? It is a position taken up to make an excuse for the fact that Windows is full of holes and a way to dismiss the fact that it can be much more secure as evidenced by other OS's.
Symantec make money selling a product that no one needs, yet. What do you want them to say, "no one really needs our product?" In fact the biggest threat to OS X to date came from a hole in Norton AV for the Mac. There was a hole in their SW that could have lead to an outsider gaining remote control of a Mac. yeah, they're credible.
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/12/26.7.shtml
The recent identified threats were not found in the wild. They were attempts at proof of concept and raised by Symantec for no reason other than to protect market share.
Any half competent programmer can write malicious code for any operating system. It is not the nature of the code but it's ability to infect and propagate itself that defines a virus.
The level of complexity for that under OS X is staggering.
.nix OS's have plenty of documented vulnerabilities. They are Open Source so the information is available to anyone that cares to launch a browser and look it up. They are published meaning hackers don't need to look for them to try and exploit them, they have a head start yet they are still unsuccessful. Why, because for every 1 guy out there trying to screw it up there are 100 guys working to plug the hole. That's the benefit off Open Source.
I think someone will be successful. But the notion that no one is trying due to market share is rubbish.