umpteenth time.. (Mac Version)

[Skuzzy]

Sounds like you were using the default security settings of XP.  Those are never good to use.

You also have to stay on top of Windows updates as well.

[68Wooley]

I might think that most of you are very lucky, may be your ISP clean the net or so .. dont know how it works.  However I never had viruses but some malwares and dialers despite of I had an antivirus working. Once I forgot my pc turned on and connected, I went out for about the whole day and when I came back there were those threats inside hidden directories and the connection was down...

Buy a cheap router, use NAT, and be sensible with email and websites and stay current with patches. Do all that and depending on your browser settings, the worst thing that you'll get is a bunch of low-threat tracking cookies. Even those can be blocked if you want.

[Vulcan]

like putting some fuel on moneys and keep them under sun during a hot summer day... no  ?   Here is why I got my AH running on linux platform.
Are you not afraid from all this 100k+ threats on the net ?

Which is the worse situation:
 - 100k+ threats with hundreds if not thousands of tools to deal with them
 - <100 threats with no tools to deal with them

and answer this, which OS is hacked and defaced more?  (www.zone-h.org for a clue)

[Reschke]

I can't imagine that there are no threats at all to an Apple OS. Maybe it is only because there are so few real every day, home apple users other than graphics designers and people who try fooling themselves due to the commercials on television.

[Hap]

Of course you're right.  There's 5 Apples in the world owned by Moms and Pops.

I'm one of them.

Wonder who has the other 4?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Of course you're right.  There's 5 Apples in the world owned by Moms and Pops.

I'm one of them.

Wonder who has the other 4?

I have one

[68Wooley]

Sure there are threats to Macs out there, and Linux, being the most popular platform for hosting web servers, gets attacked all the time.

But here's the thing, as a desktop platform, Linux, Mac and any other form of UNIX takes the fundamental view that unless you are specifically granted permission to do something, you can't do it. Windows has traditionally worked the other way - unless you are specifically prevented form doing something, you can do it. This makes Windows an easier platform to attack than Mac or Linux.

Mac and Linux are certainly not impervious and Mac users in particular would be well advised to keep an eye on the situation as the OS gains popularity (and thus a bigger target for script kiddies).

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Mac is in fact full of holes like a Swiss cheese - they're just getting discovered now that it's getting more popular.

[Vulcan]

Yup, leopard was pretty bad for holes.

There have been plenty of privilege escalation exploits revealed for OS X. So MrRipley while the methodology for security is nicer on OS X and *nix the execution has been perfect. If we look at the number attacks in our IPS engines (Sonicwall, Juniper, McAfee, etc) the signatures for *nix OS attacks are staggering.

[llama]

putting a very tough machine towards viruses and other malware risks that every PC has got, then you need an antivirus which slows down everything etc ... BootCamp I know is a solution, but not a safe one... what do you think ?

As others have said, this just isn't true on two counts.

First, my main gaming and work machine at home has exactly NO antivirus software on it. It hasn't for 4 years. And this is coming to you from someone who reviews AV and security software for a living, so I get all the good stuff for free. I periodically ghost my system, install the latest and greatest security software, let it do a full scan, determine that the system is still clean, and then Ghost it back to a point when it didn't have any security software installed just to be thorough, since I actively collect viruses for the purposes of testing.

IF you only use your Windows computer for gaming - that is, you don't web surf and you don't check your email,  and you keep it up to date with patches, AND if you use a DSL Router/Firewall, your gaming machine will almost certainly remain Virus and malware free.  If you have a Mac, use MacOS for all your internet stuff. Just play games in Windows, AND THAT'S IT.

Alernatively, you can install AV software that is light on resources, such as Eset NOD32. It increased the boot time in my test machine by just two seconds, and had no effect on Aces High framerates. NONE.

In short, there are plenty of ways to have safe gaming in Windows. Making ridiculous statements about safe computing that have no basis in fact doesn't help anyone.

-Llama