There is a lot that Apple can do before going to full-scale anti-virus scanning.
The first part I would implement is that uninstalling an app should be as easy as installing one.
There should be an Applications app where a user can see their installed apps and click a single button to uninstall it, as well as stopping all its processes.
This business of having to find all the pieces and manually getting rid of them is really poor.
Thou speaketh of iOS. Sorry, the OS X team is too busy making a new boot animation for Lion to do worthwhile things like proper app management.
From watching a lot of My Little Pony : Friendship Is Magic and reading all the related websites I am now certain the plural of Pegasus is Pegasi. Twenty years ago my friend was playing some computer game involving Pegasi and he didn't believe my pluralisation (<--not a word?) back then. Well, finally, vindication after all this time! Muah ah ha ha ha ha ha
I think you just took this to whole 'notha level. Since Pegasus is a proper noun it's singular. However, because this now describs winged horses in the general sense we can make it plural.
But Pegasus comes from the Greek so do we stick with the Greek plural forms or add the Latni or English. The Greek would be -io or -on, depending on the gender but pegasio and pegason don't look right.
As much as language follows rules it also follows visual and audible aesthetics, or aesthetia.
PS: I care not if people use virii or viruses so long as they know what is considered proper. After all, all language is invented so have fun with it.
I think you just took this to whole 'notha level. Since Pegasus is a proper noun it's singular. However, because this now describs winged horses in the general sense we can make it plural.
But Pegasus comes from the Greek so do we stick with the Greek plural forms or add the Latni or English. The Greek would be -io or -on, depending on the gender but pegasio and pegason don't look right.
As much as language follows rules it also follows visual and audible aesthetics, or aesthetia.
PS: I care not if people use virii or viruses so long as they know what is considered proper. After all, all language is invented so have fun with it.
I'd like a cut of your jib, young man... I always did better in Literature rather than English in high school. "Proper" English never quite enticed me as much as flair, artistic license and liberal sprinklings of eloquent ramblings rambunctiously rampaging with reverie.
Thou speaketh of iOS. Sorry, the OS X team is too busy making a new boot animation for Lion to do worthwhile things like proper app management.
Then we might agree that Apple is not focused on doing all it could to strengthen OSX's defence against malware.
My view is that Apple should apply good OS/IT practises to OSX so that we don't have to get into disk scanning. I can think of loads of things, based on what I've seen in other systems, but I seem to be a lone voice. Most people just say it's the fault of silly users and the system is fine, which I wholeheartedly disagree with.
I'd like a cut of your jib, young man... I always did better in Literature rather than English in high school. "Proper" English never quite enticed me as much as flair, artistic license and liberal sprinklings of eloquent ramblings rambunctiously rampaging with reverie.
The thing is that as the population gets lazier at speaking they get lazier at thinking.
One day people will think that do-gooders are people that do things well.
I believe I dismissed the dialog box when I downloaded it several days ago. I don't know how to reset the warnings. If you would be so kind to educate me.
I did take the file, put it on a keychain drive, dropped the avSetup.pkg file into the Download folder on a different Mac that I had just updated and restarted. I then launched avSetup.pkg and there was no warning.
I guess it actually has to download the file for the Security update to work?
Doesn't seem that effective to me if that's a requirement. Or do you think the OS modifies the installer somehow?
Quarantine (the part of the OS that marks files as downloaded from internet and potentially unsafe) in OS X is implemented by sticking extended attributes on downloaded files.
When you are warned once about the file and you dismiss the dialog, the quarantine attribute is cleared from the file. As a consequence, when you move the file to another OS X computer, it won't have the attribute on it (you trusted it on another Mac after all so why would you not trust it on the one you moved it to).
So, what you need to do is put back the quarantine attribute back on the file. You can do that with xattr command:
I think you just took this to whole 'notha level. Since Pegasus is a proper noun it's singular. However, because this now describs winged horses in the general sense we can make it plural.
But Pegasus comes from the Greek so do we stick with the Greek plural forms or add the Latni or English. The Greek would be -io or -on, depending on the gender but pegasio and pegason don't look right.
As much as language follows rules it also follows visual and audible aesthetics, or aesthetia.
PS: I care not if people use virii or viruses so long as they know what is considered proper. After all, all language is invented so have fun with it.
From what I remember, virii started out as a specific description of a computer virus, and was intended to move computer viruses away from the description of actual viruses that infect lifeforms. As with so many other things, it's used by a fair number of people, but not used by even more. I kind of like it, so I use it.
Then we might agree that Apple is not focused on doing all it could to strengthen OSX's defence against malware.
My view is that Apple should apply good OS/IT practises to OSX so that we don't have to get into disk scanning. I can think of loads of things, based on what I've seen in other systems, but I seem to be a lone voice. Most people just say it's the fault of silly users and the system is fine, which I wholeheartedly disagree with.
We've seen so few. Less than one a year. It's difficult for a company to spend tens of millions on work for something that's so rare. And as for an actual virus, well, it's almost impossible for an infection to spread on Unix systems. So a virus that infects one system isn't the serious problem it is for Windows.
This will basically mark the file as freshly downloaded by Safari. If you try to open the file again in the finder you should get a warning again.
And herein lies the problem with Apple's current anti-malware "solution".
Quote:
Originally Posted by PXT
Then we might agree that Apple is not focused on doing all it could to strengthen OSX's defence against malware.
Indeed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
We've seen so few. Less than one a year. It's difficult for a company to spend tens of millions on work for something that's so rare. And as for an
actual virus, well, it's almost impossible for an infection to spread on Unix systems. So a virus that infects one system isn't the serious problem it is for Windows.
That's why I think this is the perfect opportunity for Apple to spend those tens of millions. Just like in real life, prevention is better then cure. In fact, I would argue, there is no better time than NOW for Apple to put in place a cohesive strategy for OS X (and eventual merging with iOS) security for the next ten years. Especially with Lion coming up. If they can spend resources on new boot animations and a new login screen, they sure as heck can establish this second decade of the Mac OS X being truly secure and "virus"-free.
Just like vaccinations, if you didn't get it, it's always too late when you actually need it. Apple has a virtually clean slate to prepare. It's not like they haven't done this before, it's all been done with iOS, with security as their primary goal long before there were any third-party apps at all. In fact, they were extra paranoid by going with web apps only upon launch, not allowing or even hinting as to any kind of extensibility.
In some ways, Steve Jobs is always best when envisioning something new. Anything existing has to be "reimagined" to capture his interest. There's where the rest of the team comes in, and they have been doing an excellent job, but they've perhaps become a little reliant on the Steve's drive for all things new, re-imagined, and perfect.
The executive that has the guts to tell Steve things like "we need proper, seamless, absolutely unobtrusive antivirus" and "why did MobileMe suck for so long?" is the worthy successor.
Of course, I'm making a lot of assumptions in this post, but well, just putting it out there.
And herein lies the problem with Apple's current anti-malware "solution".
Indeed.
That's why I think this is the perfect opportunity for Apple to spend those tens of millions. Just like in real life, prevention is better then cure. In fact, I would argue, there is no better time than NOW for Apple to put in place a cohesive strategy for OS X (and eventual merging with iOS) security for the next ten years. Especially with Lion coming up. If they can spend resources on new boot animations and a new login screen, they sure as heck can establish this second decade of the Mac OS X being truly secure and "virus"-free.
Just like vaccinations, if you didn't get it, it's always too late when you actually need it. Apple has a virtually clean slate to prepare. It's not like they haven't done this before, it's all been done with iOS, with security as their primary goal long before there were any third-party apps at all. In fact, they were extra paranoid by going with web apps only upon launch, not allowing or even hinting as to any kind of extensibility.
Most malware prevention software are for virii (Ha! Take that you linguists out there.). That's not a real problem for OS X from what I read in the journals. Other malware is different. I'm pretty sure Apple is continuing to work on this. But what should they do? Copy MS in having a major suite of malware tools? Even that needs to be updated, as mine are, once a month. What Apple seems to be doing is to have a framework that allows them to add new malware to the lists as soon as they can do it. There's no way to actually prevent malware before It comes out out anyway. You can't really be proactive about it the way they can be with iOS. Look at the problems Google is having with Android malware.
Comments
There is a lot that Apple can do before going to full-scale anti-virus scanning.
The first part I would implement is that uninstalling an app should be as easy as installing one.
There should be an Applications app where a user can see their installed apps and click a single button to uninstall it, as well as stopping all its processes.
This business of having to find all the pieces and manually getting rid of them is really poor.
Thou speaketh of iOS. Sorry, the OS X team is too busy making a new boot animation for Lion to do worthwhile things like proper app management.
I think you just took this to whole 'notha level. Since Pegasus is a proper noun it's singular. However, because this now describs winged horses in the general sense we can make it plural.
But Pegasus comes from the Greek so do we stick with the Greek plural forms or add the Latni or English. The Greek would be -io or -on, depending on the gender but pegasio and pegason don't look right.
As much as language follows rules it also follows visual and audible aesthetics, or aesthetia.
PS: I care not if people use virii or viruses so long as they know what is considered proper. After all, all language is invented so have fun with it.
I think you just took this to whole 'notha level. Since Pegasus is a proper noun it's singular. However, because this now describs winged horses in the general sense we can make it plural.
But Pegasus comes from the Greek so do we stick with the Greek plural forms or add the Latni or English. The Greek would be -io or -on, depending on the gender but pegasio and pegason don't look right.
As much as language follows rules it also follows visual and audible aesthetics, or aesthetia.
PS: I care not if people use virii or viruses so long as they know what is considered proper. After all, all language is invented so have fun with it.
I'd like a cut of your jib, young man... I always did better in Literature rather than English in high school. "Proper" English never quite enticed me as much as flair, artistic license and liberal sprinklings of eloquent ramblings rambunctiously rampaging with reverie.
Ok, what's the plural of Platypus?
Platypussies?
Thou speaketh of iOS. Sorry, the OS X team is too busy making a new boot animation for Lion to do worthwhile things like proper app management.
Then we might agree that Apple is not focused on doing all it could to strengthen OSX's defence against malware.
My view is that Apple should apply good OS/IT practises to OSX so that we don't have to get into disk scanning. I can think of loads of things, based on what I've seen in other systems, but I seem to be a lone voice. Most people just say it's the fault of silly users and the system is fine, which I wholeheartedly disagree with.
I'd like a cut of your jib, young man... I always did better in Literature rather than English in high school. "Proper" English never quite enticed me as much as flair, artistic license and liberal sprinklings of eloquent ramblings rambunctiously rampaging with reverie.
The thing is that as the population gets lazier at speaking they get lazier at thinking.
One day people will think that do-gooders are people that do things well.
Thanks, Mario.
I believe I dismissed the dialog box when I downloaded it several days ago. I don't know how to reset the warnings. If you would be so kind to educate me.
I did take the file, put it on a keychain drive, dropped the avSetup.pkg file into the Download folder on a different Mac that I had just updated and restarted. I then launched avSetup.pkg and there was no warning.
I guess it actually has to download the file for the Security update to work?
Doesn't seem that effective to me if that's a requirement. Or do you think the OS modifies the installer somehow?
Quarantine (the part of the OS that marks files as downloaded from internet and potentially unsafe) in OS X is implemented by sticking extended attributes on downloaded files.
When you are warned once about the file and you dismiss the dialog, the quarantine attribute is cleared from the file. As a consequence, when you move the file to another OS X computer, it won't have the attribute on it (you trusted it on another Mac after all so why would you not trust it on the one you moved it to).
So, what you need to do is put back the quarantine attribute back on the file. You can do that with xattr command:
xattr -w com.apple.quarantine "0000;66666666;Safari;5FF2A3CB-B74C-405A-BF92-AD14858A6F5A|com.apple.Safari" avSetup.pkg
This will basically mark the file as freshly downloaded by Safari. If you try to open the file again in the finder you should get a warning again.
Outside of AppleInsider we find:
New Variant of 'Mac Defender' Quickly Evades Apple's Security Update as Cat-and-Mouse Game Begins
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/01/...e-game-begins/
All your attempts to disparage AI have failed yet again,
The plural of virus is viruses. There is no such word as virii.
Not true. It can be used either way. It's not considered to be standard-yet. But then, language changes. How fun is that?
I think you just took this to whole 'notha level. Since Pegasus is a proper noun it's singular. However, because this now describs winged horses in the general sense we can make it plural.
But Pegasus comes from the Greek so do we stick with the Greek plural forms or add the Latni or English. The Greek would be -io or -on, depending on the gender but pegasio and pegason don't look right.
As much as language follows rules it also follows visual and audible aesthetics, or aesthetia.
PS: I care not if people use virii or viruses so long as they know what is considered proper. After all, all language is invented so have fun with it.
From what I remember, virii started out as a specific description of a computer virus, and was intended to move computer viruses away from the description of actual viruses that infect lifeforms. As with so many other things, it's used by a fair number of people, but not used by even more. I kind of like it, so I use it.
Then we might agree that Apple is not focused on doing all it could to strengthen OSX's defence against malware.
My view is that Apple should apply good OS/IT practises to OSX so that we don't have to get into disk scanning. I can think of loads of things, based on what I've seen in other systems, but I seem to be a lone voice. Most people just say it's the fault of silly users and the system is fine, which I wholeheartedly disagree with.
We've seen so few. Less than one a year. It's difficult for a company to spend tens of millions on work for something that's so rare. And as for an actual virus, well, it's almost impossible for an infection to spread on Unix systems. So a virus that infects one system isn't the serious problem it is for Windows.
The thing is that as the population gets lazier at speaking they get lazier at thinking.
One day people will think that do-gooders are people that do things well.
No, that's "did good"ers. As in; " You did good".
So, what you need to do is put back the quarantine attribute back on the file. You can do that with xattr command:
xattr -w com.apple.quarantine "0000;66666666;Safari;5FF2A3CB-B74C-405A-BF92-AD14858A6F5A|com.apple.Safari" avSetup.pkg
This will basically mark the file as freshly downloaded by Safari. If you try to open the file again in the finder you should get a warning again.
And herein lies the problem with Apple's current anti-malware "solution".
Then we might agree that Apple is not focused on doing all it could to strengthen OSX's defence against malware.
Indeed.
We've seen so few. Less than one a year. It's difficult for a company to spend tens of millions on work for something that's so rare. And as for an
actual virus, well, it's almost impossible for an infection to spread on Unix systems. So a virus that infects one system isn't the serious problem it is for Windows.
That's why I think this is the perfect opportunity for Apple to spend those tens of millions. Just like in real life, prevention is better then cure. In fact, I would argue, there is no better time than NOW for Apple to put in place a cohesive strategy for OS X (and eventual merging with iOS) security for the next ten years. Especially with Lion coming up. If they can spend resources on new boot animations and a new login screen, they sure as heck can establish this second decade of the Mac OS X being truly secure and "virus"-free.
Just like vaccinations, if you didn't get it, it's always too late when you actually need it. Apple has a virtually clean slate to prepare. It's not like they haven't done this before, it's all been done with iOS, with security as their primary goal long before there were any third-party apps at all. In fact, they were extra paranoid by going with web apps only upon launch, not allowing or even hinting as to any kind of extensibility.
The executive that has the guts to tell Steve things like "we need proper, seamless, absolutely unobtrusive antivirus" and "why did MobileMe suck for so long?" is the worthy successor.
Of course, I'm making a lot of assumptions in this post, but well, just putting it out there.
And herein lies the problem with Apple's current anti-malware "solution".
Indeed.
That's why I think this is the perfect opportunity for Apple to spend those tens of millions. Just like in real life, prevention is better then cure. In fact, I would argue, there is no better time than NOW for Apple to put in place a cohesive strategy for OS X (and eventual merging with iOS) security for the next ten years. Especially with Lion coming up. If they can spend resources on new boot animations and a new login screen, they sure as heck can establish this second decade of the Mac OS X being truly secure and "virus"-free.
Just like vaccinations, if you didn't get it, it's always too late when you actually need it. Apple has a virtually clean slate to prepare. It's not like they haven't done this before, it's all been done with iOS, with security as their primary goal long before there were any third-party apps at all. In fact, they were extra paranoid by going with web apps only upon launch, not allowing or even hinting as to any kind of extensibility.
Most malware prevention software are for virii (Ha! Take that you linguists out there.). That's not a real problem for OS X from what I read in the journals. Other malware is different. I'm pretty sure Apple is continuing to work on this. But what should they do? Copy MS in having a major suite of malware tools? Even that needs to be updated, as mine are, once a month. What Apple seems to be doing is to have a framework that allows them to add new malware to the lists as soon as they can do it. There's no way to actually prevent malware before It comes out out anyway. You can't really be proactive about it the way they can be with iOS. Look at the problems Google is having with Android malware.