is it true that computers made by apple are harder to hack then regular PCs?

Answer 1

Apple computers run a variant of BSD. It is much less used than Windows so the attackers don't focus as much attention on the Operating Systems. Though, there are only a very small viruses avaliable on the Mac.
Also, PCs seem more vulnerable because the vast majority of users haven't a clue about security.
So answering your question, Yes.

Answer 2

Macx lovers , advertising, shops etc would lwan tyou to lead to believe Mac OS X is harder to exploit.

Bow you asked "hack" that means breaking in, not as such getting infected with a virus.

Breaking in on computers is something done by people with skills and knowledge (and maybe some tools).

There is little knowledge in the hacker community of the fomer CPU used by the macs: the PowerPC G3/G4/G5 adds a layer cause the architecture of the CPU is unfamiliar with your attackers. New macs use the identical same CPU as today's PCs so that advantage is gone.

Macs use an open source basis (e.g. PHP 4.4.4 was released in a Mac OS X patch a few days ago.). That means the knowledge of the packages and what they do is well known by the attackers (they learn it to attack e.g. linux/unix based servers, and the knowledge is typically widely shared.)

Apple is notoriously slow (compared to open source based envirnonment) to path their software. E.g. the above mentioned release of PHP 4.4.4 was done in source code for all other unix based machines on Aug 12th 2006. The added 2.5 month of exposure is needed casue apple needs to add stability, (just as e.g. a Microsoft takes months to release a patch, nothing new there), but their open source basis (with instead spreading of the details of the vulnerability) and their slow patch cycle typically used by closed software vendors is a dangerous combination that leaves computers vulnerable for a very long time while the would be attackers know how to get in.

So is it harder: it depends on the specific situation. It is harder cause it's done less, but there is no fundamental reason why it would be harder. The attitude of the community makes it is actually both painting a target on the machines (nobody seems to take the bait yet) and create a false sense of security leading to more insecurity.

Now, as long as the market share of macs remains low this will only be used in targeted attacks, most home suers won't need to worry about that. Once the threshold of market penetration reaches the interesting level for mass hacks (e.g. building a botnet) it might suddenly and violently change.

Diversity is good, and that's where mac's play an important role: if all use the same hardware design, with the same software vulnerable to the same vulnerability, then all it takes is minutes for a global event to spread to all of them. If there are more hardware platforms, more separated software all vulnerable to their own distinct set of vulnerabilities those wide ranged attacks become significantly less severe.

Just be aware there is no magic bullet making macs immune, nor can there ever be anything that does that for any platform and you'll be fine.

Answer 3

No, it's Apple propaganda.

The simple fact is that ALL operating systems can be hacked - but most of the hackers in the world are too busy hacking Windows (because they mostly hate M$) to worry about Macs and Linux.

Rawlyn.

p.s. Rollover - you say "PC" where you clearly mean "Windows PC". PC stands for Personal Computer and bears no meaning on what OS it is running. A Mac is a PC, so is a Linux machine.

Answer 4

No, it's that Mac/Apple has only 2% of the market share of personal computers. Hackers are concentrating on the 98% of computers which are PC. That's why PCs seem more vulnerable.

Answer 5

they can be or they may not be..depends upon the time hackers are spending on hacking an apple or a windows...suppose you are learning a language and there are two options before you..one is to learn a language which only 2% people in the world know...and the second more than 90% of the people know...which one you will prefer ( assuming a "normal" behavoiour ).....

so you can say of you are living in greenland you have a better chance of not being a terrorist attack victim. than newyork..ok bad analogy..... but i think u got the point

Answer 6

No, it is not true. It is simply that the number of people using Apple Mac is very low and hence Mac OS (Operating System) is not a very popular OS as compared to Windows. Very few people / hackers actually try to crack it as Mac OS as it doesnot create news in contradiction to the Windows OS. No software is fool proof and it is only that people want to get fame quickly by creating viruses for an OS that is more popular.

Answer 7

For the typical Windows "script kiddie", yes. For the dedicated professional engineer or hacker, no.

Answer 8

yes... but since less people use MACs there aren't as many viruses for them.

MACs are actually better computers than PCs

Answer 9

Yeah cause of different programming language.