Mac Vs PC – Logic and Common Sense to the Rescue!

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Mac Vs PC – Logic and Common Sense to the Rescue!
By Prescott Small

In the March, 2008 issue of the ABA Journal there is an article regarding PC versus MAC in regards to cost, security and usability.

This article is a response to the comments from Ben Stevens and Rick Georges and the comments they have made in this great debate of the “New Century” as they put it.

I have been in IT for 20+ years; I have over 10 years of MAC experience dating back to the MAC Plus. I have about 15 years of PC experience and the last 5 years have been focusing on security and intrusion prevention. I am also a SANS GIAC Certified Security Professional. When I had my own computer business I specialized in setups and upgrades of fully networked systems for law firms. In other words, I have the background qualifications to set the record straight. I guess you could call me the “expert witness” here.

Being that Ben Stevens is an attorney and is contributing to this article I have to assume that he is aware that he is reporting false information. He is either lying or he is completely incompetent regarding the “Security” of the Mac. There are “ZERO” Mac viruses is a complete lie and he should be ashamed of himself for misleading people like this. It is either gross negligence or complete stupidity.

Also his claims about costs are false – I have personally managed $30+ million upgrade projects for windows based environments and made comparisons to MAC that people like Ben never even consider.

See my other Article below regarding Layer 8 of the OSI Model:

It is my professional opinion that Ben Stevens is not qualified to advise anyone on their computer purchases – if he were to do so, someone should sue him for malpractice.

You see operating systems are made by people; people make mistakes which result in flaws or weaknesses. Other humans constantly seek out these weaknesses and attempt to exploit them. Once the exploit is found a Virus is written to take advantage and then web sites go up to lure the unsuspecting. Mac users make a serious mistake in assuming that their systems are immune – that is ridiculous. MAC had security through obscurity. In other words they were such a minute market share that they became to insignificant of a target to attack. That is not security. For awhile now Mac and its supporters have been claiming that Macs are invulnerable – that is foolishness and basically daring attackers to try. Also consider that Mac is regaining back some market share now which means they are increasing the target size making them more appealing to try to exploit.

You also have to take into account the fact that the MAC OS’ has verified vulnerabilities which exploits exist for and/or are being created for right now.

One of the most dangerous parts to this puzzle is what I like to refer to as Layer 8 of the OSI Model – the end User. These oft repeated messages of “You’re safe and Mac’s don’t get viruses.” Build up a false sense of security in Mac users that will make exploiting them far easier than the savvy PC users. As long as the greatest sucurity risk between the chair and keyboard exist a computer is vulnerable to attack.

You must always remember that the bad guys are after the low hanging fruit. With Macs not being protected, users being over confident and a growing market share the Mac is fast approaching the status of lowest hanging fruit.

Also try to keep in mind that now the virus writers are not kids trying to impress their girlfriends anymore. Today these are often sophisticated and educated criminals with intent to make a profit at your expense. Many of these organized criminals even have PhD’s in computer science.

Some final advice: Never, ever trust a person that tells you your OS is immune to Viruses. Never, ever trust only your OS to protect itself from you and the internet.

Here’s an offer Ben – you stop trying to pretend to be an I.T. guy and I won’t pretend to be a lawyer.

One last parting comment:

Rick Georges is absolutely correct when he states “Remember: Know what software you want to run before you decide what hardware to buy.”

This is the golden rule of computing – You always by computers to perform a task. The task defines the software and the software defines the computer. Anyone that would tell you to look at hardware first has no business advising anyone on computing or related technologies because they are incompetent.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/mac_v_pc/

It’s Not te OS Stupid, It’s Layer 8 of the OSI Model
http://ezinearticles.com/?Its-Not-the-OS-Stupid,-Its-Layer-8-of-the-OSI-Model&id=522079

More about Mac Viruses:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/macs-becoming-virus-targets/2006/05/01/1146335624796.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Prescott_Small
http://EzineArticles.com/?Mac-Vs-PC—Logic-and-Common-Sense-to-the-Rescue!&id=1037202