Viruses
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Linux is safer than Windows
Is Linux more secure than Windows? The quick and easy answer is yes. Most viruses and malicious software today are written to target Windows systems and will not affect Linux or Mac computers. If you’re going to work – and play – in a Windows world, you better get protection.
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Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The McAfee mess
IF you’re selling security, it’s probably a bad idea to send your customers’ computer systems crashing. Yet this is exactly what anti-virus vendor McAfee Inc. did last week when it released an updated virus definition file that crashed hundreds of thousands of Windows XP computers around the world.
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Monday, September 14, 2009
Inconvenient truths
A WORKER at a Best Buy outlet in Hamilton, Ohio, has posted screen shots from a Microsoft training module aimed at helping store personnel convince netbook buyers to choose Windows 7 over Linux. The screen shots posted on the Overclock.net forum, are taken from a course entitled “Comparing Windows 7 to Linux-based PCs,” prepared by Microsoft to promote the latest version of its operating system. That Microsoft would launch such a marketing effort is understandable. After the debacle of Windows Vista, the company has a lot riding on Windows 7. And whether it admits it or not, Linux is already a viable, often more attractive alternative desktop operating system.
What is a little surprising is the extent to which Microsoft’s marketing hacks are bending the truth to sell Windows 7.
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Mac virus alert
THE headlines seemed designed to alarm Mac users. “Virus found in pirated copies of iWork ’09” and “Mac pirates catch cold,” news sites blared last week. These were followed quickly by “Second Mac trojan attacks pirated Photoshop CS4.” From these, it was just a hop, skip and jump away to “Mac malware tide on the rise.” Coming just a few days apart, these headlines seemed to portend a tidal wave of malicious software that was about to pummel and sweep away unsuspecting Mac users. Comeuppance for years and years of smug complacency, some Windows users clucked. Now that the Mac is gaining market share, expect more such attacks, others warned.
The truth was a little less exciting than the hype.
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Monday, November 05, 2007
Mac attack
THE technology press made a big deal last week about the discovery of a malicious piece of programming—called a Trojan horse—aimed specifically at Macintosh users. The program is not a virus, because it does not replicate itself. Nor does it target any specific weakness in the Mac operating system. Rather, it tries to trick users into authorizing the installation of software that can hijack their browser, steal information and passwords and make them a target for spam.
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Monday, February 05, 2007
A safer place to be
BACK when I used Windows exclusively, I was acutely aware of the dangers that viruses and worms posed. In fact, one of the first things I did on every computer I used was to install anti-virus software. Now, more than half a year after switching to Linux at home and Mac OS X at the office, I’ve yet to encounter a single virus on either platform, despite running both without any kind of software protection. The old Windows user in me wonders: Am I being reckless?
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