Text 17539, 195 rader
Skriven 2006-04-24 18:54:00 av George Vandervort (1:382/8)
  Kommentar till text 17538 av Charles Scaglione (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: Border ?
================
Hello Charles!

Monday April 24 2006 14:59, Charles Scaglione wrote to JEAN PARROT:

 CS> On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:57:00 -0400, JEAN PARROT -> GEORGE VANDERVORT
 CS> wrote:
 CS>
 CS> Hi Jean:
 CS>
 JP>>          You never want to cross a boarder, George, he will then
 JP>> refuse    to pay his rent, maybe. But yesterday, at the Canadian
 JP>> border, we    sailed through, they were so happy to see us again.
 CS>
 CS> I believe it's in 2007 that we'll be required to use a passport to
 CS> visit Canada and vice-versa?  My wife renewed her passport when she
 CS> went on a mission trip to Central America several years ago, but mine
 CS> has long expired.
 CS>
 CS> Back on topic - did you see where one Mac reseller is offering to
 CS> install a licensed copy of Windows XP SP2 on the new Intel systems
 CS> they're selling?
 CS>
 CS> Sign of the times Jean.  You better get on that band wagon and join
 CS> your son and my son.  <g>  BTW, Apple just announced a new 17" Power
 CS> Book.  I wonder how much it weighs?
 CS>
 CS> Regards.
 CS>
 CS> -+- Pan/0.14.2.91 (As She Crawled Across the Table
 CS> (Debian GNU/Linux))
 CS>  + Origin:  (1:123/789.0)

Here is the latest News on the new Intel apple:


=== Cut ===

Monday, April 24, 2006 · Last updated 12:14 a.m. PT

Macs, long a haven of safety, seen as growing security risk

By DAN GOODIN
AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO -- Benjamin Daines was browsing the Web when he clicked on a
series of links promising to deliver pictures of an unreleased update to a
computer operating system.

Instead, a window opened on his screen and showed strange commands being run,
as if the computer was under the control of someone - or something - else.

Daines was the victim of a computer virus.

Such headaches are hardly unusual for computer users that run Microsoft Corp.'s
Windows operating system. Daines, however, was using a Mac - a computer often
touted as being more secure and immune to such risks.

He and at least one other person who clicked on the links were infected by what
security experts call the first ever virus for OS X, the operating system that
has shipped with every Mac sold since 2001.

After surviving unscathed from the onslaught of viruses and other computer
malware unleashed on the Internet over the past decade, Mac aficionados can no
longer take for granted they are immune to such attacks, security experts said.



"It just shows people that no matter what kind of computer you use you are
still open to some level of attack," said Daines, a 29-year-old British
chemical engineer. He's one of those who considered Macs invulnerable to such
attacks.

Apple's increasingly iconic image, growing market share and adoption of the
same type of microprocessors used in machines running Microsoft Windows are
making the Apple machines a bigger target, they warn.

But Bud Tribble, Apple's senior vice president of software technology, disputed
claims that OS X is more susceptible to attack now than in the past.

"It's become less vulnerable as we've continued to improve security," he said.

In Daines' infection, a bug in the virus' code prevented it from doing much
damage. Still, several of his operating system files were deleted, several new
files were created and several applications, including a program for recording
audio, were crippled.

Behind the scenes, the virus also managed to hijack his instant messaging
program so the file was blasted to 10 people on his buddy list.

"A lot of Mac users are in denial and have blinders on that say, 'nothing is
ever going to get to us,'" said Neil Fryer, a computer security consultant who
works for an international financial institution in Great Britain. "I can't say
I agree with them."

Fryer, himself a Mac user, said over the past year he has begun taking
additional precautions to make sure he doesn't fall victim to an attack. He
spends more time than in the past scrutinizing his security logs for signs of
intruders, and he uses a firewall and additional security applications, just as
he would with a Windows-based machine.

Among the other signs Macs are a growing target:

- The SANS Institute, a computer-security organization in Bethesda, Md., added
OS X to its 2005 list of the 20 top Internet vulnerabilities. It was the first
time the Apple operating system has been included since the experts started
compiling the list in 2000.

- The number of discovered Mac vulnerabilities has soared in recent years, with
81 found last year, up from 46 in 2004 and 27 in 2003, according to the Open
Source Vulnerability Database, which is maintained by a nonprofit group that
tracks security vulnerabilities on many different hardware and software
platforms.

- Less than a week after Daines was attacked in mid-February, a 25-year-old
computer security researcher released three benign Mac-based worms to prove a
serious vulnerability in OS X could be exploited. Apple asked the man, Kevin
Finisterre, to hold off publishing the code until it could patch the flaw.

The Mac's vulnerability could also increase as a result of Apple's transition
to a product line that uses microprocessors made by Intel Corp., security
experts said.

With new Macs running the same processor that powers Windows-based machines,
far more people will know how to exploit weaknesses in Apple machines than in
the past, when they ran on the PowerPC chips made by IBM Corp. and Motorola
Corp. spinoff Freescale Semiconductor Inc.

"They have eliminated their genetic diversity," said independent security
consultant Rodney Thayer. "The fear is that we're going to run into a new class
of attacks."

Apple's Tribble noted that OS X was derived from FreeBSD, open source software
that was built from the ground up to provide security for computers networked
together. Since its origins in the early 1990s, the Unix-based FreeBSD has
continually been battle-tested by college students and computer security
specialists, whose discoveries of holes have allowed security to improve over
time.

OS X, Tribble said, is designed to be Internet safe out of the box, without the
need for firewalls or additional security software. He praised OS X for making
it easy for users to automatically install security patches.

He also disagreed with people who say Intel processors make Macs a bigger
target.

"All the things we've been doing to make Mac OS X secure continue to be
relevant on Intel," he said.

To be fair, real-world attacks of Macs remain virtually nonexistent, and Apple
gets high marks from many security experts for making an operating system that,
by default, resists viruses and other malicious attacks. F-Secure Corp., which
has been providing security software since 1990, discontinued a version of its
antivirus program for the Mac in the late 1990s.

"There was no market because there were no Mac viruses," Mikko Hypponen,
F-Secure's chief research officer, explained.

Windows, by contrast, often requires users to modify a number of default
settings and to install antivirus and antispyware programs to lock down a
machine.

For instance, Windows automatically gives an end user full authority to format
a hard drive, delete operating system files and carry out other administrative
tasks often central to the successful execution of malicious programs. By
default those types of commands require OS X users to enter a password first.

But as Daines can attest, such safeguards are no guarantee. For reasons he
still doesn't understand, the virus that attacked his PowerBook G4 was able to
elude OS X's password protection, possibly, he said, because he was already
running in administrator mode.

"We're all sort of waiting with bated breath to see if any problem will happen
and the jury is still out," said Thayer, the independent security consultant.
"I don't think you'll find a consensus."

-+-

On the Net:

http://apple.com

=== Cut ===


Regards,
George Vandervort

'Using yesterday's software to create tomorrow's problems today'

ARACHIBUTYROPHOBIA: The fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your
mouth.

... the Beatles said it best, Obla-Dee, Obla-Daa, Life Goes On...
--- FMail/Win32 1.60
 * Origin: Bill Gates does my Windows (FidoNet 1:382/8)