Another Good Reason to be 3% of the Market...

[Krevinek]

It is official, viruses on Windows have gotten more malicious than normal and we are starting to see some really nasty stuff come out. Even more reason to do regular backups from now on, and feel lucky that we haven't dealt with something this nasty on OS X yet:

Ransom-Ware : Now hackers can hold your files hostage...

Something this malicious hasn't been seen in the wild for quite a long time on either side of the gap. Yes, Zombie machines are a malicious use of virii, but this completely disrupts the ability of someone to use their documents. Bill? Steve? You listening? This is why security matters!

[MBHockey]

I <3 my PowerBook, although I don't believe MacOS X achieves security solely through obscurity...

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by MBHockey

I <3 my PowerBook, although I don't believe MacOS X achieves security solely through obscurity...

You are correct. This type of attack has nothing at all to do with the size of Apple's marketshare. It is a one-by-one attack on Windows computers. Attacks of this type can only succeed as a result of Microsoft's poor security model.

[texanpenguin]

I'm appalled that people would do this.

Though ransomware is a great name for it :P

[Mikuro]

Just one more thing to add to the TCO (total cost of ownership) of Windows machines.

Seriously, though, it's been a long time coming. A long, long, long time. Just take a look at the spread previous viruses have had on Windows, and it's obvious that if anyone really wanted to do damage, they'd bring half the freakin' world to its knees. Windows users are very lucky most virus writers aren't really bad people.

This is what happens when you ignore security for a decade, Microsoft! I just hope people will get the message and demand Bill Gates' head on a pike.

[gerbick]

Like above... this was a long-time coming. Also, being the minority of the computer market doesn't do a damn thing other than run off vendors like Corel and products from Adobe.

Not security via obscurity. I could see if you were talking about NetBSD, BeOS, or something else. But MacOSX is quite visible... security via being a better OS. That's what I see.

And for expansion, they need more market share. Big time.

[xarcom]

I disagree. Market share has a huge effect on the amount of viruses written for a particular platform. Although I believe that OS X has a stronger security model (due mostly to its BSD heritage), I think its foolish to think that if OS X had a higher market share it would still have a small amount of vulnerabilities. The fact is that it is impossible to remove all bugs from software and therefore security will always be an issue regardless of the platform. Also, I would attribute alot of the security in OS X to its unix core which limits the amount of damage that a virus or trojan can do by containing it to the current user's files.

I think the latest security problem with dashboard widgets installing themselves in Tiger shoes us that Apple is capable of making bad security decisions. If Apple's market share was larger this could have been a major security problem since its pool of maliscious hackers would be larger and therefore more people would be ready to exploit the hole.

The real test will be when Apple has a much larger market share (and by association a larger evil hacker share)...

[Viro]

I don't see how Macs will be immune from such attacks. There is nothing stopping someone from writing a trojan that installs a program that encrypts your files, launches every-time at boot, and demands a ransom.

Market-share isn't going to be much of a deterrent. Remember that Macs have the image of being affordable only to the affluent. You don't hold poor sods for ransom, you go for the rich dudes. If anything, the elitist impression of Macs should/would make them a much more viable target.