Virus protection on the Mac

Gregory Weston wrote:

> In article ,
> Günther Fischer wrote:
>
> > In article , Jamie
> > Kahn Genet wrote:
> >
> > > Guenther Fischer wrote:
> > >
> > > > In article
> > > > , jt
> > > > august wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > In article
> > > > > <e4f03d6f-ff32-4e56-895f-7a0542932164 DeleteThis @l39g2000yqn.googlegroups.com
> > > > > >, rudolphreindeer252 wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > I've owned various Macs for about 20 years. Never once I have
> > > > > > ever encountered any virus. But I never say never!
> > > > >
> > > > > Way back when John Norstad's Disinfectant was new, I ran in on all
> > > > > my floppies and found all files that had resource forks were
> > > > > infected with something, can't remember which now. Purged all my
> > > > > floppies and have never seen another Mac virus since.
> > > >
> > > > That was a different OS and apple had quite a problem to control the
> > > > spread of a few virus strains - I suffered a lot from nvir
> > > > infections. At that time, most people did not use DSL and the need
> > > > of a firewall was just discussed by most users. Today, things have
> > > > changed quite a lot. I am shure, that you will see problems quite
> > > > soon. Take care...
> > >
> > > Quite soon? Did you mean the opposite?
> >
> > No. The mac market share and the iphone/ipod market has grown that
> > much, that a virus in the wild has enough population to spread - and it
> > is getting more interesting for sick brains to program it.
> > (believe me, I am the last one who wants to see that ....)
>
> The problem with the idea that the major incentive for malware authors
> is the size of the target population is that there are populations
> smaller than the installed base of Macs that are aggressively targeted.
> People who write this kind of software for a living run the same kind of
> cost/benefit analysis as any other serious business. The size of the
> population is a factor, of course, but at least as important are the
> difficulty of mounting the attack and the perceived reward that may be
> realized in the case of success.

What rewards, what business? You mean viruses are created to drum up
business for antiviral software companies like Norton etc?
Sabotaging business competition would be a kind of negative reward, I
guess..

ray

In article , Ray Laughton
wrote:

>
> What rewards, what business? You mean viruses are created to drum up
> business for antiviral software companies like Norton etc?
> Sabotaging business competition would be a kind of negative reward, I
> guess..

The main "serious" business for virus writers is to use hijack computer
for use as agents for sending spam and for targeted advertising. That's
where the money is.
Then there are the more shady "business" areas with account phishing,
targeted attacks against competition and/or authorities.

--
I recommend Macs to my friends, and Windows machines
to those whom I don't mind billing by the hour