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Mac is the easiest PC for hacking. takes 20 seconds to get administrative access to OSX.

I would advise people to use Kaspersky for Mac and Little Snitch firewall.

Viruses for OSX have been around for a long time.

Well, the fact that "Macs have no viruses because no-one makes viruses for them - that's just the way it is" would make me want to make viruses for a Mac and be the first super-hacker to hack macs if I was a hacker, which I am not :)

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Mac is the easiest PC for hacking. takes 20 seconds to get administrative access to OSX. I would advise people to use Kaspersky for Mac and Little Snitch firewall. Viruses for OSX have been around for a long time.

I have been blindly operating on the notion that my Macs were impervious to this bad stuff, so I can't thank you enough for this info.

I plan to get BOTH of these when the next check arrives...

If I may ask - how susceptible is the iPad to these bad things? My iPad (earliest version) is a frequent tool.

MF

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Double-spam! That sucks.

Malware exists for every operating system. The key is to practice safe computing, avoid common exploits (especially installing or running a program from a non-trustworthy site), and watch out for phony links in email.

Windows 7 and Mac OSX are pretty good at avoiding this stuff, but if users try hard enough, they can get infected.

--Marc W.

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My best friend, a former Sony Pictures editor, had a home computer that was so badly infected after his teenage daughters used it for a few weeks, the Best Buy "Geek Squad" came by, worked on it for three hours, and then said, "this is by far the most severely-infected computer we've ever seen. There's over 3000 viruses on it. We can't fix it. Give up."

That was a PC. Windows viruses can be really pernicious, and I think the reality is that because 90% of the world uses Windows, the virus nuts concentrate more on those. If they really wanted to spend time on Macs, they could cause a ton of grief.

--Marc W.

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My best friend, a former Sony Pictures editor, had a home computer that was so badly infected after his teenage daughters used it for a few weeks, the Best Buy "Geek Squad" came by, worked on it for three hours, and then said, "this is by far the most severely-infected computer we've ever seen. There's over 3000 viruses on it. We can't fix it. Give up."

That was a PC. Windows viruses can be really pernicious, and I think the reality is that because 90% of the world uses Windows, the virus nuts concentrate more on those. If they really wanted to spend time on Macs, they could cause a ton of grief.

--Marc W.

Also because Windows is pretty "un-straight-forward" in terms of databases and registry and what not.

I remember the first time my mom bought a Mac and she asked me "How do I remove software?"

"By throwing it in the bin".

Jaw dropped.

That's straight forward.

And also in Unix systems the system itself doesn't really have root access if I remember correctly. User has to specifically tell the system to go root. Something again that Windows can't. In Windows system can do whatever it feels like.

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Read up. OSx root access is very easy. doing the same in windows vista or 7 is impossible to most hackers.

and BTW windows 8 will have integrated protection. it could have happened 11 years ago if the state department did not sue the crap out of microsoft.

Also because Windows is pretty "un-straight-forward" in terms of databases and registry and what not.

I remember the first time my mom bought a Mac and she asked me "How do I remove software?"

"By throwing it in the bin".

Jaw dropped.

That's straight forward.

And also in Unix systems the system itself doesn't really have root access if I remember correctly. User has to specifically tell the system to go root. Something again that Windows can't. In Windows system can do whatever it feels like.

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I still hate the fact that Windows can do things behind your back though.

This can be controlled to a point, if you select the right options in the user prefs. I tell you what I hate: all the Adobe updaters that bypass all the usual operating system guidelines (Windows and Mac), and nag you to update. Very irritating, especially when they have to quit all the browsers and do a bunch of housecleaning before the updates take. Adobe does not follow the rules on a lot of this stuff. Microsoft at least generally does.

--Marc W.

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Yeah don't get me started on adobe. My wife's computer had a pending reader update, when it was downloaded, after freezing every single operation on the comp, it started installing, or stalling really, when it was done it simply said: this update is not compatible with this operating system. It shut down and after five minutes the adobe updater bounces up again saying "there's a new update for reader!" gorgeous

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