Beast Or Buddha » MAC Security

Macs, Snow Leopard, Malware etc….

Posted on August 27th, 2009 by Drazen Drazic

I suppose having some form of detection “engine” at the ready even if it’s just sitting idle, (if that is really what Apple is considering and it’s not just speculation waffle), makes sense in the longer term…..if that one day comes where all us Mac users come under attack!? Quicker to download a signature than a complete application when time could be of the essense. But if gameovered….doesn’t matter anyway, Hmm….Nothing new here.

Posted in Bad Stuff, MAC Security, Vulnerability Management | No Comments »

Might sit back this time for “Snow Leopard”……maybe….maybe not.

Posted on August 16th, 2009 by Drazen Drazic

The last update to Mac’s operating system (Leopard) didn’t really live up to the hype in my opinion but still, I’d rather be on the Mac than Windows. Just a personal choice. Thanks to cmlh for the link to this comparison between Windows 7 and the last version of the Mac OS. Worth a read if interested. Then again, with an upgrade price of around $30, who knows, I may get the urge to get it sooner. http://www.apple.com/macosx/

LOL at the dude(s) that responded to a recent press article on Mac security that I was quoted in…assuming I was on anything but the Mac and how dare I bag Mac security. But that’s another story. Got to love the Mac fanboys. They are a passionate bunch.

Posted in MAC Security | 2 Comments »

Is Apple reversing “bad boy” roll with MS?

Posted on March 31st, 2008 by Drazen Drazic

Gees….the Mac OSX boys are copping a bit of a flogging on the Net now…..It’s like payback time! But is that fair?

It’s no surprise and you didn’t need to be old Nostradamus to predict it was going to happen. (Even I did!). But, the big heroes are now talking up what we all knew was the bleeding obvious! It was just a matter of time. Still, to be fair to Apple (and I use a Mac – 2 in total the office, all else….yeah, variations of Linux as primary machines for the guys and one failed 6 month Vista “experiment” which became Linux), they are not supported by a bunch of vendors helping to support their security! Okay, it’s only a matter of time…I know….but seeing something today on a test machine (Windows)….after many years…..scared me big time. I saw the Norton Antivirus screen!

Posted in Bad Stuff, Dumb Security, MAC Security | 5 Comments »

2008 – The Year of Mac Security…..

Posted on January 19th, 2008 by Drazen Drazic

The signs look bad for Mac in 2008 in regards to security, in my opinion. As 2007 came to an end, you could see throughout the year that Mac security issues were growing in terms of mainstream reporting (though numbers did not increase that much from 2006: http://secunia.com/product/96/?task=statistics_2007).

The expectation is that it’s only a matter of time before Mac users start to face issues that PC users have been for many years. The concern is; will Mac users be ready? Are they educated enough? To be honest, most probably are not….making them a prime target.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Bad Stuff, MAC Security, Vulnerability Management, cyber crime | 3 Comments »

Bad guys struggling due to “Good Guy” vendors but……

Posted on November 10th, 2007 by Drazen Drazic

I like these stories that come out every so often from the anti-badware vendors to remind us that they are on top of the fight against the bad guys. From ZDNet; More malware means good news in the security fight.

Somehow, while attacks are on the rise, it seems that the good guys are making it hard on the bad guys:
“While the volume of malware threats has spiked recently, one expert believes that this is a good sign, with cybercriminals having to resort to increasingly desperate measures to get a result.”

WTF? Really?

“For one thing this means that they’ve had to cast their nets wider and pump out a vast amount more than they once had to,” said Ducklin.

The bad guys are on the backfoot:
“Secondly, it means they’ve had to employ increasingly complicated tactics to expose people, such as this PDF Trojan……………the fact that it sounds complicated can be taken as a sign that we’re beginning to do very well.”

This is on the back of Kaspersky reporting upper hand on the fight.

Posted in Bad Developers, Bad Stuff, Dumb Security, MAC Security, Research, WTF, Web Application Security, cyber crime | 3 Comments »

Hello Mac…the ASA says you’re okay!

Posted on June 15th, 2007 by Drazen Drazic

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority recently released an assessment in response to complaints lodged against some of the MAC ads. (Gees they are good ads ).

It’s worth a read. While you can argue some points, the realities are pretty much close to the mark. (says a new convert to MACs). It does still freak me that I don’t have any anti-virus or spyware software on my machine (coming from 17 years of running such software on all previous machines I have owned).

Posted in MAC Security | 2 Comments »