THE iphone quote of the Centry - Updated 07-10-09 - Post #30

[noladave]

I love my iphone, I've said that.

As for viruses and hacking, have you ever watched a hacking competition?? You know, the kind where they put up a MAC, a PC, and Unix box??? Usually the MAC is hacked first, and then Unix or PC.

It's not the box or the software that keeps APPLE products from being hacked - it's the fact that all of 3 people use MACS.

Want proof positive? HOw long did it take a 19 year to hack the brand new 3GS Iphone?? All of about a day....

more proof??

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9905095-37.html

Last year's contest was won by exploiting a QuickTime vulnerability, which was patched by Apple in less than two weeks. As of the time I posted this, no one had gained control of the Vista or Ubuntu machines, but I'll update later as the results come in over the rest of the afternoon

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[FireDancer]

Just about any system can be hacked. PCs are the largest market share and thus offer the greatest rate of return for viruses. PCs are generaly in highly desirable areas, such as businesses, making compromising them more desirable.

The purpose of computer viruses or hacking is no longer really about destroying your machine. Viruses are about money. This could be done by adding your machine to a bot net to leverage it at a future time, installing something on your machine to sniff for valuable information, or placing an exploit on your machine to be used later.

OS X has had the benefit of "security through obscurity" to some extent because they are not as widely used as PCs, aren't as prevalent in the sought after business sector, and are a more closed platform.

On an entirely different not I am confused by the new title "Update post #30". I did post number 30 and in no way was it an update to the OP.

The vast majority of viruses are the results of bad behavior. Not just surfing adult sites or downloading illegal software, but opening attachments you can't verify, having too trusting of setting on your browser, or using a WiFi network that is unprotected.

If you really really want to make yourself safe from getting hacked purchase a machine that runs a PowerPC chip and install AIX on it. There are no know exploits in the wild that I am aware of for AIX running on PowerPC. Good luck.