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raymor · 04-05-2012, 09:55 PM

The idea that Mac is highly secure certainly has an element of truth, and is also somewhat based on how old Mac systems worked, a lack of functionality that made them immune to certain classes of attacks.

Mac was way more secure than Windows through the 1990s, and still is today, but in a different way, a more Linux like way.
Mac was the last of the pure disk operating systems. Through the 1970s, computers were multi-user, running network operating systems. That meant they had to be secure inside and out so that one user couldn't mess with another user's stuff. This was the age of Unix. 1981 was the dawn of the PERSONAL computer and it's Disk Operating System. To make disk operating systems run with only 256k of RAM, all of that unnecessary security stuff was removed. That was cool. No need for security on a personal, non-networked system, so DOS, Mac, and then Windows were fine.

Then the internet happened. Suddenly, personal, disk based computers with no security were being connected to a global network. Microsoft quickly began tossing network features at Windows, like remote desktop and SMB. They even took technologies that were entirely inappropriate for web use, like COM, and renamed it ActiveX, selling it as an "internet feature." On a platform with no security, but with remote access, this resulted in all hell breaking loose, desktops averaging 30 different infections apiece.

Apple didn't go nuts putting things like remote network access on top of their disk based systems. They continued to treat it as a personal computer, not a (fundamentally broken) network computer, so they didn't have the security problems that Microsoft had. Mac gained a well deserved reputation for security at that time. (MS still hasn't finished cleaning up the mess. With Windows 7 they are starting to get CLOSE to having proper security for a network OS, pretty close to what the network OSes of the 1970s had.)

In 2001-2002, Apple went full bore with a completely different OS, an actual network OS with network OS security, a Unix known as OS X. (Unix 3.0 certified.) The new Mac doesn't have the security advantage of the old Mac, which lacked exploitable features like remote access. Instead, it has Unix style security - the user, and user-run programs, can't fuck up the SYSTEM. You may recall MS testifying in court that Explorer, which was both the MS browser and the desktop shell, is so deeply embedded in the system that Windows won't boot without it. That implies that exploits encountered by the browser can run deep within the system. Mac and other POSIX systems like Linux don't suffer from that. On Mac and Linux a browser is just a browser. It can only load web pages. It's not part of the boot process, so fucking with it can't fuck up your system.

04-05-2012, 09:55 PM
raymor Confirmed User Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 3,745	The idea that Mac is highly secure certainly has an element of truth, and is also somewhat based on how old Mac systems worked, a lack of functionality that made them immune to certain classes of attacks. Mac was way more secure than Windows through the 1990s, and still is today, but in a different way, a more Linux like way. Mac was the last of the pure disk operating systems. Through the 1970s, computers were multi-user, running network operating systems. That meant they had to be secure inside and out so that one user couldn't mess with another user's stuff. This was the age of Unix. 1981 was the dawn of the PERSONAL computer and it's Disk Operating System. To make disk operating systems run with only 256k of RAM, all of that unnecessary security stuff was removed. That was cool. No need for security on a personal, non-networked system, so DOS, Mac, and then Windows were fine. Then the internet happened. Suddenly, personal, disk based computers with no security were being connected to a global network. Microsoft quickly began tossing network features at Windows, like remote desktop and SMB. They even took technologies that were entirely inappropriate for web use, like COM, and renamed it ActiveX, selling it as an "internet feature." On a platform with no security, but with remote access, this resulted in all hell breaking loose, desktops averaging 30 different infections apiece. Apple didn't go nuts putting things like remote network access on top of their disk based systems. They continued to treat it as a personal computer, not a (fundamentally broken) network computer, so they didn't have the security problems that Microsoft had. Mac gained a well deserved reputation for security at that time. (MS still hasn't finished cleaning up the mess. With Windows 7 they are starting to get CLOSE to having proper security for a network OS, pretty close to what the network OSes of the 1970s had.) In 2001-2002, Apple went full bore with a completely different OS, an actual network OS with network OS security, a Unix known as OS X. (Unix 3.0 certified.) The new Mac doesn't have the security advantage of the old Mac, which lacked exploitable features like remote access. Instead, it has Unix style security - the user, and user-run programs, can't fuck up the SYSTEM. You may recall MS testifying in court that Explorer, which was both the MS browser and the desktop shell, is so deeply embedded in the system that Windows won't boot without it. That implies that exploits encountered by the browser can run deep within the system. Mac and other POSIX systems like Linux don't suffer from that. On Mac and Linux a browser is just a browser. It can only load web pages. It's not part of the boot process, so fucking with it can't fuck up your system. Last edited by raymor; 04-05-2012 at 10:02 PM..