Linux and Mac users will be "easy targets" for hackers

Russian security expert Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of IT security company Kaspersky Labs, has said Linux and Mac users will be “easy targets” for hackers and malware writers over the next few years.

Linux and Mac users have enjoyed a secure past which has split opinions across the world as to why this is the case. Some believe that malicious virus writers and hackers do not target Apple OSX as it has a small percentage of the market share compared to Microsoft's Windows operating systems. The opposite opinion is that the Mac OS is inherently more secure than that of Windows so the same attacks do not work.

Apple ran an ad campaign in the UK where adverts claimed macs are not subjected to viruses. The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK cleared the adverts which included a national press ad, a regional press ad, a poster and two Internet and cinema ads.

Kaspersky goes on to mention that "Modern operating systems are flawed by design. Mac and Linux are not as secure as [users] think; criminals pay no attention to them at the moment, but they will be vulnerable — easy targets. The problem is that customers design the operating systems (either within open source communities or via market demand) and they choose flexibility over security.

Source

n00bs.

Linux is inherently secure because of the fact that installing/running every single X, Y and Z software only as root, is highly discouraged and is not a regular practice, unlike in windows. The only way you can change it is by releasing professional apps for linux which NEED to be installed/run as root. This I doubt will ever happen.

Mac has lots of security flaws, and once a macbook air was hacked in 2 hours flat. This has no connection with the security of linux.

lol at Kaspersky to make some despo attempts...I thought they could do much better but..

MetalheadGautham said:
n00bs.

Linux is inherently secure because of the fact that installing/running every single X, Y and Z software only as root, is highly discouraged and is not a regular practice, unlike in windows.

If I am not wrong, Vista does this as well.

Mac has lots of security flaws, and once a macbook air was hacked in 2 hours flat. This has no connection with the security of linux.

LoL! You are now starting to justify your siggy

T159 said:
lol at Kaspersky to make some despo attempts...I thought they could do much better but..

Yep. I think they shud change their field and start making games for linux now!

G

I think M$ may have payed for Kaspersky to say like that-just to attract to Windows using kasperky customers...

Linux is far secure than M$ Windows...Linux has less than 3-4% OS share(i guess arund 2%) n the architecture of linux is very secure....i don't say linux isn't vulrenerable but very hard to get vulnerable like windows...i guess 50%(or less) linux users rn't connected to Net at all...how the hell can linux vulnerable than windows?

An they keep forgetting the number of Linux servers on the internet, branded and unbranded.

Pat said:
If I am not wrong, Vista does this as well.

Not exactly. Vista supports it, but common vista apps don't.
Take Relo for example. Compiling code in it via Borland C++ 5.5 needs admin privilages.

LoL! You are now starting to justify your siggy

What ? I said OSX was hacked in 2 hours flat.
And the dock is supposed to have several security holes.
Mac may be virus proof but not hacker proof.

FYI, for the first day none of the computers were hacked. On the second day, the Mac was made to visit a malicious website and then it was hacked (and I think it was 2 minutes).

goobimama said:
FYI, for the first day none of the computers were hacked. On the second day, the Mac was made to visit a malicious website and then it was hacked (and I think it was 2 minutes).

Curious: Did the hacker gain root access or was it just access to user files ?

MetalheadGautham said:
Not exactly. Vista supports it, but common vista apps don't.
Take Relo for example. Compiling code in it via Borland C++ 5.5 needs admin privilages.

I cant make any sense of what you have posted.

What ? I said OSX was hacked in 2 hours flat.
And the dock is supposed to have several security holes.
Mac may be virus proof but not hacker proof.

Seriously dude, what are you smoking these days ? Your justification of Linux being better (or more secure) than Windows/Mac is plain lame. And lets not get into how hard it is to break into a Linux system(if you want to, let me know). You seem to be so blinded by Linux that everything is **** compared to it. Even I like Linux, but get real dude

Pat said:
I cant make any sense of what you have posted.

I didn't expect you to.

What I said was, there exist commonly used software on windows which need admin access to use. This makes them vulnerable.

Seriously dude, what are you smoking these days ? Your justification of Linux being better (or more secure) than Windows/Mac is plain lame.

First, tell me what did YOU understand by my justification about linux's security compared to windows and mac.

And lets not get into how hard it is to break into a Linux system(if you want to, let me know).

Go on then. I am listening.

You seem to be so blinded by Linux that everything is **** compared to it. Even I like Linux, but get real dude

Assumption is not good.

MetalheadGautham said:
I didn't expect you to.

What I said was, there exist commonly used software on windows which need admin access to use. This makes them vulnerable.

Commonly used software ? Please let me know a few of them. I am listening.

First, tell me what did YOU understand by my justification about linux's security compared to windows and mac.

You have given no justification other than the stupid "needs admin priveleges" argument.

Go on then. I am listening.

Seems like you forgot about the openssh debacle.
*secunia.com/advisories/product/2719/?task=statistics_2008
*secunia.com/advisories/product/2719/?task=advisories_2008

These are some vulnerabilities just for the kernel. Lets not even get into anything else right now.

C

Another low market share == low attacks troll.

If market share is the only reason why Windows is attacked, Apache has eternally been the leading web server market. Then can these ranters explain why "Code Red" (or any other IIS worm for that matter) worm aimed at IIS and not Apache?

Keeping a Linux install secure is just a matter of accepting all the updates suggested by package manager.

Pat said:
Seems like you forgot about the openssh debacle.
*secunia.com/advisories/product/2719/?task=statistics_2008
*secunia.com/advisories/product/2719/?task=advisories_2008

These are some vulnerabilities just for the kernel. Lets not even get into anything else right now.

Vulnerabilities exist in 99% of software. But a well designed software can make exploitation of these vulnerabilities very difficult and an active development community can release fixes much faster before any major damage is caused.

thats true, and thats the strength of linux, its not that its hacker proof, but there is a very good dedicated community working for the benifit of linux, that's its greatest strength.