Hey tech-heads and fellow mac groupies. I’m due to have a cable modem installed on my old PowerMac 6500 tomorrow and I’m concerned about hackers. I read a post from January about all the ills that can befall the unwary. But sadly all the protection info was for PC’s and Linux systems. What can the red headed step child of computers use as a means of defense?
Also, I admittedly am a MP3 junky. (Save the flames, I know I’m a bad person.) I’m curious if a firewall will prevent me from using such search engines as Macster.
Any advice?
You can get (assuming you dont already have one) a fire wall from http://www.zonelabs.com/ .
Also to test how bad you’re comps security is try https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 it will test your ports and other stuff.
Now as for DLing MP3s I use teh fire wall from zonelabs and when a program trys to connect to the net ti will ask if you want this program to be alowed too or not hence keeping hackers from getting into your files with out your ok.
Just tell it “ok” and you will beable to DL as normal.
Remember Franklin Osis,
Father of his Clan.
Three Strengths he gave us:
The jaguar’s spring that brings an enemy down,
The jaguar’s claw’s that rend the enemy’s heart,
The jaguar’s taste for the enemy’s hot blood.
-“The Remembrance” (Clan Smoke Jaguar), Passage 104, Verse 18, Lines 5-10
HaploXL, thanks for your reply, but I’ve checked out zonelabs.com and as far as I can tell its not Mac compatable. Now I am NO computer whiz kid, but unless I missed something, its only compatable with “Windows 95/98/NT/2000” Any Mac-specific software that you can recomend?
Ok my bad i didnt think about that kicks self in the face. Well th MacOS is considered by MANY to be “Hack Proof”. So hack proof in fact that one company is selling a firewall, no not just ANY firewall, a MAC Firewall in multipul languages for $249-$730 http://www.ir.rikkyo.ac.jp/netsemi/koji/firewall_mac.html
(hows that make you feel about the security they ofer now?)
But their is this–
–MacOS 9 can be abused by an intruder to generate a large volume of traffic directed at a victim in response to a small amount of traffic produced by an intruder. This allows an intruder to use MacOS 9 as a “traffic amplifier,” and flood victims with traffic. According to [3], an intruder can use this asymmetry to “amplify” traffic by a factor of approximately 37.5, thus enabling an intruder with limited bandwidth to flood a much larger connection. This is similar in effect and structure to a “smurf” attack, described in http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-98.01.smurf.html
Unlike a smurf attack, however, it is not necessary to use a directed broadcast to achieve traffic amplification. –
With that excert from http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-99-17-denial-of-service-tools.html we can assume that the Mac is not easly “cracked” but is good FOR “cracking”. Because of the Traffic Amplification effect.
Note thought you might wana Download that patch so that a Hacker cant use your system as a tool if they do manage to sneak past the MacOS’s hackproff defenecs.
SO…in a nutshell. Your ok unless you let some one come in and hit your computer with a hammer a few times. But wait…with a Mac it would take more than that even.
looks around and mumbleswhere did i put my blow torch
Remember Franklin Osis,
Father of his Clan.
Three Strengths he gave us:
The jaguar’s spring that brings an enemy down,
The jaguar’s claw’s that rend the enemy’s heart,
The jaguar’s taste for the enemy’s hot blood.
-“The Remembrance” (Clan Smoke Jaguar), Passage 104, Verse 18, Lines 5-10
Your most basic level of protection is to keep File Sharing turned off by default (only turn it on for a specific interval / purpose, if ever).
The MacOS, although not totally hack-proof, is damned difficult to hack; but, more to the point, the cyberuniverse on the other side of your modem is not thinking Mac thoughts when the hacking of randomly found permanent IP addresses is attempted.
The Army found this to be compelling enough to cause them to switch –
http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Sep1999/a19990901hacker.html
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Well, I have a mac, was wondering about such things as this. But being a newbie I lack the language to really phrase the question even. You have reassured me, thanks.
Wisdom is the boobie prize,they give you when you’ve been --unwise!
The biggest security feature is inherent to the OS - there’s no command line, so all the back doors you hear about on Unix systems and the like just don’t exist on MacOS.
Generally, if you leave file sharing and web sharing turned off, you’re OK. But, the traditional caveat applies: don’t run applications emailed to you by people you don’t know. Otherwise, don’t sweat it.
Thanks, haploXL and AHunter3. I guess I’ll sleep a little easier now.
Anyone else have any thoughts on Mac hackability? I have the antiquated OS 8.1 just so ya know.
I’ve been using a Linksys Cable/DSL router for a while, and I like it quite a bit. While I am using on my home PC network, it is not platform specific. One nice feature about it, in addition to the firewall features, is the fact that it has an integrated 4-port 10/100 switch. This means you can share the connection with other computers you might have in your home for the price of a network card. I saw it over on this page yesterday.
A committee is a lifeform with six or more legs and no brain.
One of the other reasons Macs are “hack-proof” is because it’s generally not worth it for a malicious cracker to learn about a different operating system for the little gains they would earn from breaking into a new IMac and stealing someone’s wonderful new digital home video.
With Unix skills you can break into government and business servers. With Windows skills you cen get most of the rest of the high-profile servers. With MacOS skills you can brreak into and eighty year olds computer that they were given because it was “cute” and easy to learn.
Inelegantly put, but pretty much correct. The Mac is safer because it isn’t the industry standard so there are fewer interesting targets (Los Alamos National Labs and the US Army beside the point) and fewer hackers with experience hacking into a Mac server. You could make the same point about an AmigaOS server: who the heck is gonna know how to con such a foreign beastie into cooperating?
But also, as MaxTorque says, absence of a command line means it would be difficult to hack even if that were not the case, i.e., if you had to choose between hacking a Mac server and an Amiga server, it might be easier to hack the Amiga, depending on whether or not its command line interface could be convinced to receive remote instructions.
And Mac OS X does not have this kind of security. You may not SEE the command line on a daily basis, but it certainly has one, and the vulnerabilities that come with one (and with being another Unix, therefore most likely sharing the known susceptibilities of other Unix systems).
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The truth of the matter is you won’t be much more vulnerable with the cable modem than you were by going over the phone line. The only difference will be a static IP address vs. a dynamic one.
And you’re not very vulnerable in the first place. You’re much more likely to run into a virus than you are to be “attacked by a hacker.” Basically, someone has to know you’re there to do anything to you, and how would they know you’re there? Randomly guessing IP numbers?
If you want to install a firewall (certainly can’t hurt), ask the people who are installing your modem for you about it. If they do it, I’m sure they’ll be happy to charge you for another product. If not, they may be able to point you in the right direction.
Hey guys thanks for all the help! Nice to hear the some reasuring info. I did ask the installer guy today about firewalls. He prattled on about a few programs I could use, but I noticed he mentioned a few I was pretty sure were PC only. “Oh yeah, you gotta Mac… I dunno, they must have something I guess.” Thanks. Real helpful.
It’s amazing the bias against Macs. And despite the rumors I’m neither “eighty” nor did I pick up a Mac because it was “cute”.
Not to turn this into a Mac vs PC flame-o-rama, but I guess you could reverse the logic and say that people use PCs because they’re ugly and hard to learn.
Personally I was trained on and consequently use Macs because they’re the industry standard in my choosen profession.
Oh and yeah, it matches my couch.
There’s a bias against Macs, because, hey, not that many people use them. And unfortunately, unlike the Unix users in the world, most Mac users aren’t capable of writing free software for their OS of choice.
It’s a cruel, cruel world.
I was keeping my mouth shut until I saw this:
Just curious. Are you proposing that there are more unix users in the world than Mac users? Also, there are gobs of Mac users writing free software for the MacOS - probably more than in the unix world.
No, I wasn’t, but now that you bring it up, there probably are more Unix users in this world than Mac worlds.
“Bullshit,” you say. May seem like it until you realize that around 85-90% of the servers in this world are run on Unix or Unix-derivative OSes.
For example, straightdope.com is run on Unix. www.ultimatebb.com (the people who do this message board script) is run on Unix. www.washingtonpost.com is on Unix. www.whitehouse.gov is on Unix. www.apple.com is run on Unix. (Gotta say that really suprised me. And yes, it’s Apple as in the people who make Macs.) www.netscape.com is on Unix.
You get the idea. If you want to look these up for yourself, go to http://www.netcraft.com/whats/. Unix is the backbone of the internet. It’s been around much longer than Apple and Microsoft. Mac OS X actually has FreeBSD (or another of the BSDs) as its core.
Also, there are gobs of Mac users writing free software for the MacOS - probably more than in the unix world.
Surely you jest. First of all, your average Unix user is more adept with computers, and is more likely to have programming knowledge than your average Mac user.
The open source movement started on Unix systems. You can get an entire computer full of free (and a lot of it open source) programs for a Unix derivative, and if you get something like Linux or FreeBSD, you can get the OS for free too.
If you get a degree in computer science, you will learn how to program on a Unix system and a Windows system. They don’t use much Macs.
Basically, Unix is an operating system for programmers, by programmers. Macs, simply, aren’t.
Well, I guess this is a question of semantics. I would tend NOT to call users of unix based servers, ‘unix users’, since they are rarely exposed to the OS. By your argument, we should declare LMOS (Loop Management Operation System) the most widely used OS. This is the OS that controls the telephone switching circuits for much of the worlds telephone network… A lot more people use telephones than computers!
Also, you seem to think Macintosh and unix are mutually exclusive. Unix, in one flavor or another, has been running on Macs for more than 10 years. Furthermore, MacOSX IS unix.
I will not refute your claim that the AVERAGE unix user is more adept with computers than your AVERAGE Mac user. They have to be. The claim was, however, that there are more people programming free software on unix than on Mac. I think you overestimate the unix community and underestimate the Mac community.
First, being adept on unix does not make you a programmer. I work in a predominantly high tech unix environment. 90% of the unix users here have never even programmed a shell script, much less something in a structured language. Second, for those few that do real programming in unix, 75% of their software is proprietary or for personal use and never sees the light of day. Thirdly, the majority of unix software that does make it out into the world is rarely free. In general, if it’s not GNU then it usually cost serious GDollars…
Now let’s talk about Macs. While this is hardly a scientific study, here are my observations. Of all of these high tech unix users who work in my company, about 75% of them have PCs at home, about 20% have Macs, and about 5% have both PCs and Macs. I know of only a couple of people who are doing any programming on the PC platform, but I know of a dozen or so who are programming on their Macs. The Mac programming ranges from simple AppleScripting, to HyperCard, to MacPerl, to Java/JavaScripting, to CodeWarrier C++. There’s also programming going on in music software like Cubase, Cakewalk, MIDI, etc… Plus 3D modeling, animation, and multimedia programming in VRML, OpenGL, SDL, LINGO, and SMIL. …and I haven’t even gotten started yet… I haven’t mentioned HTML, VisualBasic, Excel Macros, FOxPro, yadda, yadda, yadda… The bottom line is this, there are a lot more opportunities to program on a Mac than on a unix box.
I’m a computer engineer. I took a lot of CS courses at The University of Texas. We programmed in a number of different environments, including Macintoshes, and the emphasis was always on OS independent programming.
Let me rephrase your statements so that they are more accurate. Unix is an OS that was created by programmers to be used by programmers and other skilled computer users. The MacOS was created by programmers to be used by average (unskilled computer users) and programmers and skilled computer users, alike.
I thoguht I might bring the conversation back to the OP, or at least related to the OP.
This website, www.secure-me.net
will scan your IP address and test it to see how bad the security it. It is completely free, unless you want an advanced scan which costs about $20 IIRC. You log in using your computer, give it your IP, then about 2-4 hours later you get an email with a grade. The website is pretty popular so it is frequently busy, so what I do is put the request in and then go to bed. When I wake up I check my email. Anyway, this will tell you if you have any open ports, or any exploitable features. Have Fun!
-N
Also probably true, and another good reason to celebrate your OS choice. Not that Macs are virus-free: it has been a pretty vicious 18 months lately, with TWO Mac viruses unleashed upon us, the Autostart worm and the Graphics Accelerator trojan horse / virus. And although I have yet to see the Graphics Accelerator buggie, NY graphics shops have been infected and reinfected with Autostart.
But prior to that, the last virus release that could execute and do naughty things on the Mac (rather than just using the Mac as a vector to reach PCs on the network) was July 1997.
Of course, Windows PC users could eliminate the vast majority of what’s virulent out there by avoiding Microsoft Outlook at all costs, and choosing Lotus SmartSuite or Corel Office over MS Office for business apps; the name of the game in virus-avoidance is “don’t use the most mainstream solutions that are out there, those are the ones that the viruses that spread are most likely to target and make use of.”
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