[dustyjay]

Again with Jobs' Apple Products/Software?

"All Windows Users at Risk of Quicktime Flaw"

http://www.infopackets.com/news/secu...ktime_flaw.htm

[Ent]

There is a certain Irony in people's insistence that Mac's are secure while Windows-based apple software is shown to be flawed.

[dustyjay]

I would say part of the reason people think Apple systems are thought to be so secure is that since there are fewer Apple system users as compared to Windows based systems the Hackers who compile the Malware target the larger user base.

[namenotfound]

Originally Posted by dustyjay

I would say part of the reason people think Apple systems are thought to be so secure is that since there are fewer Apple system users as compared to Windows based systems the Hackers who compile the Malware target the larger user base.

That's not the reason. Look at Mac OS 9, it had TONS of viruses and it had a smaller user base than Mac OS X. The reason Mac OS X has very few viruses is because Apple switched to a UNIX based operating system.

[dustyjay]

Compare the number of virus's on OS9 to the Number of Virus's for Windows (name your flavor) I would bet you would see a major difference with Windows being on top. Not being a unix expert, I would still bet that hackers could write malware for it if they cared to do so, I may be wrong about that point though.

[OdD_jOb]

I agree i think apple are doing this deliberately to put windows sales down or give it a bad name. Some day windows users will develop viruses for macs and it will be a day we all remember.

[Ent]

Deliberate doesn't seem likely. For one thing, why such an old flaw (the article says it's a decade-old obsolete feature). Besides, Windows has so many security holes anyway, this is more likely to create doubt in the impenetrability of the Apple OS and software than to drive the droves away from Microsoft.

Part of the security that Macs do enjoy can be traced directly to Apple's firm control over what hardware and software gets in, which Windows can't or doesn't implement. So Microsoft or Windows Users generally won't be able to generate flaws in the Mac armour, but it's equally unreasonable to presume that Apple has done this intentionally.

[dustyjay]

Actually this flaw (Back-Door) was an intentional inclusion originally. It was an unintentional act to leave it in place which was a mistake. Personally I do not have Quicktime on my computer. If I get to a place that needs it, I skip that place. This is by personal choice obviously because until now I knew nothing about this Flaw.

And if Apple were to do this intentionally to try to bring down Microsoft they would not have made systems capable of runing windows, and would not allow Microsoft to make applications that run on OS X.

[Ent]

An intentional feature and an intentional security flaw are normally very different things, even if the former can contain unintentional security flaws. Do you seriously believe that this is an Apple plot to hack windows computers?

[dustyjay]

I do not see this as an intentional flaw. What I see is an intential developement tool that was originally created to allow access during developement, that should have been closed or removed before Quicktime was released publicly. I see it as an error that as yet has not been corrected, and can only hope that Apple will develope a patch to close this Backdoor. I do not think that apple wants to hack into windows computers for nefarious purposes.

Apple Computers are good systems, my main complaint about them is the price and the fact that I can not assemble my own unless I decide to purchase every single component Save for hard drives from Apple. Do I like Steve Jobs? From what I have read, I do not like his attitude towards the Consumers of his products.