Answering Computer Question About Mac & Windows Computer Security

In my last newsletter, I answered a question sent in by Jenna E.,who was asking questions about computer security and viruses.

I answered the first part of her questions, but had so much to share, I had to answer the last part of question in a separate email.

What she wrote was:

>Also, why is it that the Macs are less prone to viruses?
>
>Jenna Eichberger

In this newsletter, I'm going to continue answering Jenna's question, and give you a few lessons that will improve your understanding of computer security whether you have a Mac or a Windows PC.

I'll also explain why it is that just because you don't see any signs of a virus or similar program infecting your computer, you still could be at risk.

Let's take a look at why...

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As I mentioned last time, there are a few reasons why Macs have fewer viruses (currently there are no viruses circulating for modern Macs made in the last several years, as opposed to the
many thousand out there for Windows).

Let's talk a little about why this is.

One of the reasons -- and some people will argue that this is the *only* reason, but I disagree -- is what is called "security through obscurity". That is, since there are fewer people using Macs, they are safer since they are less of an interesting target to criminals.

This is true, but not the complete story.

Now you may have heard on the news recently about how several thousand Macs have been infected by something called a "trojan", which has made them part of something called a "botnet". You may have also seen people crowing triumphantly about how this proved that Apple's Macs are no more secure than PCs running Microsoft Windows, but this is simply not the case as I'll explain.

Just in case you don't know what a trojan is or a botnet, let me define the terms for you.

First, a trojan: remember the story of the Trojan Horse? In ancient times, the Greeks won the Battle of Troy with the use of the Trojan Horse.

The Greeks attacked the city of Troy without success for ten long years, and it wasn't until they hit upon the idea of the Trojan Horse that they were able to get past the secure battlements of the city.

As you may know, they built the horse and hid inside it. The Trojans thought their enemy had given up, and they took the "gift" inside the walls that had kept the Greeks out for 10 years, and that night the Greeks won.

Did the Greeks win because the walls of the city of Troy were weak and didn't protect the city?

No, they won because they were able to get past all of the security because the Trojans invited them in without knowing it. And that's exactly how a trojan computer program works -- it is disguised as something the user wants, and they bring it in past the security.

You can have the most secure computer in the world and it doesn't matter if you do this.

Now in this particular case, the trojan infected Mac owners who had installed pirated (stolen) copies of two different programs: iWork '09 and Photoshop CS4, which they had gotten from a file trading network which is mainly used to illegally share movies, music, computer programs, etc. and these file trading networks are very common was to infect a computer.

So it is not something Mac users need to worry about unless they're pirating software, which hopefully you're not doing whether you use a Windows or a Mac computer.

So what is a botnet?

A botnet is a group of computers which have been infected with some kind of malicious program like a virus, worm, or trojan. The infected computers connect to each other to form a network and pool their resources while being controlled from afar by someone (often by organized crime).

The botnet is used to launch attacks on websites or for whatever criminal activity the person or people controlling the botnet have in mind.

And this is the key point: most "malware", including viruses, worms, trojans, etc. these days are being designed to help criminals break the law and take advantage of people.

This didn't used to be the case; back in the day, virus writers (for the moment assume that when I say viruses here I am talking about all types of malicious software) wrote the viruses to show off, for the most part.

As a result, you could usually tell pretty easily when your computer got infected because the virus writers often went out of their way to let you know, or at least didn't bother hiding the fact from you.

Nowadays, however, the virus writers have a vested interest in staying under the radar. They want to use the resources of your computer to stage these attacks, to send spam to your friends and family (often making you look like the bad guy), etc.

So it's pretty common for computer users to be blissfully unaware as their computers are infected and working for someone else!

There are literally *millions* of infected Windows computers out there right now, owned by people who have no idea what's going on. And now thanks to this recent trojan, there are a few thousand Macs infected (although as I'll explain in the next installment of this article, it's *far* easier to clean up on a Mac than a similar program is on a Windows PC).

This does point to the "security through obscurity" era coming to an end for Apple's Macs, but as I mentioned before, that's not the only reason there's a difference between Microsoft Windows computers and Apple's Macs when it comes to security.

But as usual, I have so much to teach you, I can't come close to fitting it all in one newsletter, so I'll have to continue this later.

Before the final article in this series, I will be sharing an audio lesson with you, and I have another of my monthly computer question & answer live events coming up soon too, so keep your eye on your email inbox for those messages.

Until next time, take care, stay safe, and enjoy,

Worth Godwin
Plain English Simplicity For a Complex Modern World

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