I'm wondering if there is a security difference with the PPC processors and the Intel processors in the new Macs. Why would I ask such a silly question? Simply, I recall when Apple announced it's intention to use Intel and people swarming the Mac threads crying that the Intel chips would be more susceptible virus's than the superior PPC's.
Intel Mac's have been out for some time now. Is there any evidence to indicate that the PPC has greater resistance to virus's over the Intels?
Viruses target operating systems, not physical hardware. The processor chip is irrelevant to the equation.
However, Intel-based Macs can run Windows XP/Vista, and as a result, the Windows side of a Mac (only if Windows is installed and only while booted into the Windows OS) can still be targeted by viruses, spyware, etc., just like on a regular Windows PC.
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If the Intel Macs had to suffer with BIOS, viruses could easily do an end run around any OS - but since they are EFI based (EFI is very similar to Open Firmware that Macs have long used), this possibility is sealed.
Intel Macs can be targeted by viruses or malware as Lars said, only when running Windoze on the machine. (There are even a few methods to do this even inside a sandboxed environment like VMFusion, so if one is running Windoze, one should continue to use the usual Windoze anti-viral methods).
Emerging as a more prevalent form of malware are programs that sucker you into making some critical step, hitting a button or asking for your password, perhaps t install a "codec" or something else that is "needed" - and that kind of attack is becoming more common on all platforms, and is independent of processor in most cases. So one needs to take the appropriate precautions, even with a fairly secure system like OSX.
Intel processors are also much more prone to stack overflows, exceptions, and other odd problems caused by their curious design and lack of registers, though better software like OSX does help the situation.
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google the N-bit. Intels processor hardware was changed to coincide with a windowsXP security implementation. As soon as we started getting newer intel laptops about 2-1/2 years ago at work, older software started breaking... i guess thats more secure!
addendum: its software counterpart in XP is DEP, data execution prevention. DEP is useless without the N-bit hardware implementation though. So chips can be more/less secure in combination with software features. Reminds me of the voodoo video card T-buffer.... ahhhh voodoo
If the Intel Macs had to suffer with BIOS, viruses could easily do an end run around any OS - but since they are EFI based (EFI is very similar to Open Firmware that Macs have long used), this possibility is sealed.
Uhh... EFI has been cracked open and smashed into a billion pieces.
The only saving grace is that EFI is such a total failure that nobody is apt to bother.
You seem a real fun guy, Guy. Why do other people's conversations bother you?
Personally, I'm quite impressed with our Intel iMac. Smooth as silk, fast as Ghandi, and clean as Pauly's grandfather. No bug problems so far that can't be cured with ClamXav. Definitely an improvement over PPC.
You seem a real fun guy, Guy. Why do other people's conversations bother you?
Conversations don't bother him at all. Stupid lying misinformed nonsense that's already been thoroughly debunked here and elsewhere a thousand times -- the kind of crap one five-second search of Google or Wiki could have told you -- bothers him.
It should bother everyone. If we were all cavemen, a goodly portion of this community would still be inventing the wheel.
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No bug problems so far that can't be cured with ClamXav. Definitely an improvement over PPC.
It's absolutely an improvement over PPC, but I'd be curious to hear of all these "bug problems" you cured with ClamAV. Other than slowing down your machine a bit, what exactly does it do, seeing as how there aren't any Mac viruses?
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