The Computer Buzz

October 15th, 2009

Nome and Paul Van Middlesworth - owners - The Computer Factory
 

Microsoft, Apple and Mal-ware

The Internet is a dangerous place. Rogue regimes in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa abet a criminal culture that floods the Internet with get rich schemes and “too good to be true” offers aimed at emptying the bank accounts of gullible Westerners.

Internet Trojans force our PCs to serve as messengers in criminal networks with tens of thousands of other PC “zombies” silently assembling and transmitting personal data on ourselves and neighbors and stealing our identities and wealth. We are warned that our PC is under attack and salvation is but a click away and when we click, things get worse. Advertising pop-ups block our view and refuse to budge until they’re damn well ready. Ads for Viagra, Cialis and penile enhancement are constructed to make us question our manhood.

It’s a jungle out there.

Apple would have you believe that they are the solution, but buying an Apple to avoid mal-ware is like buying a Volvo diesel sedan to discourage auto thieves. It might help, but at what price?

For many years Apple boasted a unique architecture. .It was defiantly different from Windows PCs in both hardware and operating system. Apples miniscule but highly vocal cult of retired teachers, graphics artists and other left handed types, took brand loyalty to new levels, while PC wonks snickered at Apple’s underpowered “computers on training wheels.”

Three years ago Apple finally pulled the plug on its antiquated hardware and joined the mainstream. Today an Apple PC is basically a Dell with a different operating system. Apples can even run Windows XP.

It’s true that Apples are less likely to suffer virus attacks than PCs, but not because Apple has better security. Apple’s OS is perhaps even easier to compromise than Windows. Apple’s immunity springs from its limited share of the worldwide personal computer market. Bad guys simply don’t waste time writing mal-ware for Apple’s 4% of the market. They have bigger fish to fry. Internet criminals might also reason that Appleheads don’t have any money left to steal after they pay Apples ridiculously high price for a computer.

Don Reisinger, writing for E Week quotes an NDP study indicating that while 12% of American homes now have an Apple computer, 85% of Apple owners also have a PC.

Microsoft’s bitter experience with Vista and the continuing attacks on Windows by Internet criminals over the past couple of years have helped Apple increase its share of the PC market in the USA from 5% to 7%. Microsoft badly needs Windows 7 (release Oct 22nd) to be favorably received but they also need to improve the publics concern about Windows susceptibility to Internet mal-ware.

Last week Microsoft announced the release of “Security Essentials.” It is a free Internet security package. Independent test lab AV-Test gave it good marks. If ever Microsoft had an incentive to do something right, it is now. Unless Microsoft can provide Internet security solutions, alternative operating systems like Apple’s, Google's and other Linux based operating systems will continue to erode Microsoft’s dominant market share.