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Ugh...another PC virus...ACHOO!...If only I had the stability of UNIX and protection of Mac OS X...Too bad so sad...

arbitor, on 14 September 2010 - 10:30 PM, said:

Wow, shocking. Another PC virus, and another "PC's are evil, Mac/UNIX/Linux is God" post. Seriously I wish that people would switch, at least long enough for the hackers to take notice and swing the bullseye off of MS and onto Apple and the rest. Then us "PCdiots" can have a chance to laugh when everyone realizes that the only 'security' that these systems have is the fact that they're too small a target for hackers. The second that the market share is big enough, hackers will be all over them, only it would be even worse, with this 'nothing can touch me' attitude. I'd rather take my chances with my security system and guard dogs and deadbolts and armed guards out front, than walk around with no doors and no windows and my hands over my face saying "you can't see me".

Arbitor, Mac OSX is 'claimed' to be 'safer' due to the fact that it has tiny market share so these guys would target the bigger money hole, that would be Windows. The moment OSX or any other Apple OS gets more than 20% market share or something like that, the following will happen:

1) You'll see Viruses ect popping up more for that OS

2) I'll be scratching my head wondering why people went ahead for OSX but shrug as it's their money down the drain.

Essentially, there's just 1 simple way of avoiding a virus like this.

READ THE SUBJECT, as with moth e-mail clients, there is the 'subject' field that has some info on the topic at hand or even the e-mail sender's name would instantly be a red flag when it's something like "ChEaP\/iGrA". There's a simple thing to do.

DELETE THOSE E-MAILS

Chirst, people shouldn't blindly download attachments or read e-mails from people they don't know or even from those that are from 'friends' as I stated, read the subject that that's quite likely enough to set off the red light to delete the e-mails.

If that's not enough, then google the e-mail content if you're suspicious about it and it'll say if it's spam/torjan ect on the dot. So quit your whining, want crApple? Go for it, oh wait, they cost about 1.5k minimum, oh well guess you have to stick with your virus saturated 'Winblows' as I've heard it being called, computer.

Anti-virus + little computer knowledge = happy computer user

I haven't got a virus on my system for at least 3-5 years, so stop whining plox ktkxbai

Let's keep OS X out of this, please. No OS is invincible.

$18?? I spend that on lunch. These thieves are small-fry.

arbitor, on 14 September 2010 - 10:30 PM, said:

If only, UNIX and Mac OS X was WORTH writing virus's for.

Really, nobody who falls for a click-scam is safe, even if they never surf porn sites. What's to stop them from posting false info about a person for this scam?

I could post info saying "Mr. X has been looking at midget-clown-bearded-women haven sex with donkeys wearing raincoats, and I have the surfing info to prove it!" That doesn't make it true, but Mr. X would probably pay cash to kill that lie. They'd sprinkle in a bit of your real history just to make it seem legit.

This is really ugly since the effects can reach beyond a person's financial well-being.

Ok. Hijacked contact lists are NOT NEW and has been going on for awhile. I have gotten emails from frends that contained nothing more than a link. I did not click the link, but just deleted the email. I did contact the friend and inform them that their contact list had been hijacked. Got one from my brother that was using an address that he hadn't used in years ( an AOL address and he was using MSN ). This was a dead give away. DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK as then your contact list be be hijacked as well. It has nothing to do with which OS you are running, or your security software. Email stuff such as contact lists are kept on the ISP servers and NOT in your computer, so whichever OS you may be using is not an issue.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 15 September 2010 - 03:46 PM

Misread the word "Porn" in the title as "Pom"; thought this was some sort of scam designed to exploit unpatriotic Australians.

Question is, what is this 'public site' where the info is posted, and seriously, who cares?

cryofpaine, on 14 September 2010 - 11:30 PM, said:

Linux/Unix is safer, not because few people use it, but because it has a better security at the beginning. I wish all you M$ fanboys would actually admit that Windows needs a lot of work.

Linux/Unix is based on 20 year-old technology; as is Windows (and Android and all the others). The world is overdue for an OS designed from scratch for current hardware and protocols; and for what users currently need.

All of the above systems are bloated with patches and band-aids: bloated to the point that if PC hardware had not advanced so far, a mainframe would be required to run them.

jw12321, on 16 September 2010 - 01:35 PM, said:

Oh please! What a load of bull!

Wait a minute here. I use Unix and Linux among others. First Linux isn't Unix. The GPL (GNU Public License) under which Linux is licensed to the public is from ... GNU. Do you even know what GNU stands for? It stands for Gnu's Not Unix (GNU). Ironic eh? Source: The GNU Manifesto

"Better security at the beginning?" Oh really? Then please explain this:

hole in linux kernel provides root rights


My Ubuntu 10.04 LTS kernel being

~$ uname -a
Linux installer-desktop 2.6.32-24-Generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 20 14:24:04 UTC 2010 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

is vulnerable. And no kernel updates yet. Yes check the date of the vulnerability. Time is of the essence.

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Nothing is safe. Not even Linux or OS X. Security depends on the weakest link in the chain, whatever sits between the chair and keyboard....

Security through awareness, not blind faith! Or worse, conceited fanboism.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Everything is a fine diamond in the hands of a skillful man; everything becomes polished glass in the hands of a fool.
~ Jean de la Fontaine – 17th century French Poet

This post has been edited by WinTard: 18 September 2010 - 11:58 PM

cryofpaine, on 14 September 2010 - 11:30 PM, said:

cryofpaine, on 14 September 2010 - 11:30 PM, said:

Thank you for you comments. I am 100% in agreement.

Interesting developments regarding rooting of Linux.

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Oh well here I go. I'm probably going to reload all my Linux systems from bare metal, just in case... Actually, it's kind of fun and keeps one up-to-date.

~~~~~~~~~~
Pain is inevitable. Suffering optional.
~ Unknown source

The proverbial OPERATOR MALFUNCTION. Yes, if users would just keep their surfing habits under control and within a moral set of boundaries, well, the hackers just take advantage of whenever and whereever they can. Things loaded within video streams can make nifty hiding places for all kinds of nasty things. And a good reliable backup scheme does wonders for getting an operating system to perform above spec with a minimum of hassle and cluttered with a task bar that has more icons than are present on the desktop. So many IMs and virus checkers and then toss in Adobe, Flash and Nvidia. Sound cards are another neccesary evil if you want a seamless operation but too many others needlessly want to stick start up items, shortcuts and quickstarts. Where does it stop?? Right there on the piece of padded foam atop your favorite chair. The user.