“For now, I’d still recommend Macs for typical users as the odds of something targeting them are so low that they might go years without seeing any malware, even though if an attacker cared to target them it would be easier for them.” (source)
IS PLAYONMAC SAFE MAC
It’s worth noting that Charlie is a Mac user himself (check out the Macbook he’s using above) and (for now) supports Mac as a secure platform for end users. While Charlie did manage to compromise the security in an incredibly short amount of time (no easy feat) he was only able to do it with lots of hard work and preparation. It takes many long hours of preparation, study and research to get the hack “in their pocket” so to speak.
IS PLAYONMAC SAFE CRACK
If one of these security experts aren’t prepared to crack a browser or the security of an OS, they simply don’t waste their time trying to do it publicly. Pwn2Own is a conference where security crackers compete by finding flaws in operating systems, browsers, etc. While this might seem terrifying at first glance, let’s take a look at what a “two minute hack” actually means. Charlie became a famous name in security cracking by winning prizes and cracking a MacBook Air in a hack that took him a paltry two minutes to perform. Therefore, Macs are “safe” because it’s not a viable investment of time and labor to attack Mac users. It still makes the most sense to develop viruses for the largest platform for the biggest return on investment. While Apple computers have become more and more common in the past ten or so years, the landscape of computer users hasn’t been upset dramatically from where it used to be.
IS PLAYONMAC SAFE UPGRADE
Statistically speaking, the more machines running a platform, the more users are likely to exist that don’t upgrade their security patches, or will allow malware to be installed on their machines.
IS PLAYONMAC SAFE WINDOWS
They want the best possible return on the investment of this time and manpower, so it makes the most sense to cast the widest net and go for Windows machines, simply because many many more computers in the world are going to be running Windows. Remember in the last edition of “Online Safety” when we compared Hackers to organized criminals, or the Mafia? Because they are organized, you can think of them as a business as well. Like any business investment, malware and viruses take time and manpower to develop. When you look at the market share (bar graph above) that Windows computers have and see how they stack up against the number of OS X computers, this begins to become clear. Let’s take a look at the realities of viruses on the Mac platform.Īpple has been criticized by many for opting for “ security through minority.” This basically means that Macs are more secure than Windows machines because they have less exposure-that there are simply less Macs around to develop viruses for. What this doesn’t mean (and this is where the clever wording comes into play) is that Macs are somehow immune to viruses. So, those “140,000 known viruses” really are inert on Mac OS. Since viruses are programs too, Windows viruses can’t be run on OS X. What does that mean in non-nerd speak? That Macs can’t run Windows programs without running Windows. Viruses are like any program-they have to be written with platform specific languages, with instructions written for that machine, operating system, type of processor, etc. This is interesting wording, because it is technically true. PC: Don’t be a hero! Last year there were a known 140,000 known viruses for PCs.
![is playonmac safe is playonmac safe](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/3973260/50538511-29159100-0b71-11e9-8afc-2b22b8cf71d1.png)
You’d better stay back, this one’s a real hum-dinger. PC: I think I got that virus that’s going around. Many times, it can be hard to draw the line between what is the truth and what is simply advertising doublespeak. There are a number of truths to this, as well as a number of myths. Macs have long been touted as the “virus-free” platform.