Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The invincible Mac is gone?

Everybody is in a panic! It's like the world is coming to an end! Am I the only one that knew this day was coming? I've been in the IT business for a long time and I can tell you that no system is impenetrable. The reality is that Mac security was not entirely attributed to the OS's code. The Macs have always been a small part of the marked share. In 2002 their market share was a mere 2.3%. Now, if I was a hacker, would I spend countless hors trying to exploit systems only 2.3% of the world is using or would I try and take down 96% of the world PCs? Hmmmmm. Recently, the Mac has gained popularity and more people are using ipods so all of a sudden, it just became a target rich environment. Now it's worth a hacker's time to try and exploit those systems. Pretty soon, Linux will also fall under the same category. More and more people are using, and learning, these non-Windows platforms and this breeds new hackers looking to make their mark.
People try to blame the increase in the Mac's vulnerability to the fact that it can also run Windows and that opens it up to those vulnerabilities. It's always easy to blame Microsoft! Everybody does it! To me, it's just a cop out. I think Apple should take this as a compliment and as an indication that their market share is on a rise. I also hope they didn't rest on their laurels and made sure they have competent security specialists to deal with these new threats.

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