2007-02-25 04:53:31 · 9 answers · asked by littleneb 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
The two most common reasons that Windows gets attacked is the sheer number of machines that are running the same code on the same hardware (millions) and Microsoft's design for email support (you could do anything, like attach files, run macros, etc). The vast majority of email users do NOT run Unix email (like elm or mailx or pine, etc). A text-only program like elm is virtually impossible to attack since you are looking at the raw text on the screen. In fact, you don't even have to run elm, just us vi to look at your /var/mail file and you'll find all the viruses, worms, and other exploits...they are in plain text and can't do anything.
Executables and VBA scripts and email attachments only work when there is code in the mail reader to that will run the exploit. Since the most popular (well, may not be popular but most used) mail client is Outlook and Outlook tries to be everything to everybody, there are many, many ways to take advantage of this feature. If everyone were to use a plain ASCII mail reader, viruses and other infections would drop to near zero. The problem is that most people want fancy fonts and clickable icons, not that cryptic command line junk found in Unix (can you say DOS too?) If you can convince all your users to run a non-MIME version of elm, then all those viruses will have no effect.
Unix has been around for decades they have had alot of time
to work out the bugs in the code (it's more mature) The Mac
has parts of it's operating system encrypted it's not easy for an attacker to get his code on the machine he has to trick the user into installing a trojan horse to open a backdoor.
2007-02-25 09:45:27 · answer #1 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes Mac's can get viruses. But the number of mac viruses is much lower than windows viruses
2007-02-25 05:00:45 · answer #2 · answered by Mich T 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well heres my answer.
Macs can get viruses, but majority of them are targeted at the Windows OS.
why? Because 80% of the WORLDS computers are running on windows. Mac has a mere 15% and Linux 5%. And guess what type of computer's the people use to create viruses? Windows. Windows also has many flaws and has many problems, because they just crank out OS's without caring. Thats my answer
2007-02-25 05:12:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Because the people who create viruses want them to spread to as many computers as possible. They target Windows based systems since that's the most used operating system. If Macs ever become the most popular, then you'll see more viruses created for them.
2007-02-25 05:06:44 · answer #4 · answered by leopold 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mac do get viruses. It's probably some evil plot by the company to kill anyone who tells about it. But seriously, they try to get you to think that they don't, when the virus rate is only slightly lower for Macs than Windows.
2007-02-25 05:03:30 · answer #5 · answered by Gianna 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Macs can get viruses
2007-02-25 04:56:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
macs do not get viruses because they have far superior antivirus software like all the mac software. pc's and windows are for accountants and stock brokers so they want the cheapest corporate machine. china churns them out and they fall apart, crash and are easier to attack with thousands of viruses. any jr. high school amateur can whip up a new virus to drive pc types nuts. lol
2007-02-25 05:39:35 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
yeah macs can get viruses its just because since windows is more popular 'virus-makers' go and make their viruses for windows so more people hopefully get their viruses.
2007-02-25 05:01:52 · answer #8 · answered by Puyz 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
all computers can, maybe the one that you are on about actually has virus protection
-Cameron
2007-02-25 05:00:46 · answer #9 · answered by § gαввαηα § 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋