File-NUKING Cryptolocker PC malware MENACES 'TENS of MILLIONS' in UK

Wonderful.

File-NUKING Cryptolocker PC malware MENACES 'TENS of MILLIONS' in UK

Isn't that almost the same as what AT&T and Verizon are trying to do, only on a smaller scale?

Quote :

Users are urged to maintain regular backups of their data, kept separate from their computers, as the encryption is essentially uncrackable, and consider using tools to thwart the software nasty. The Trojan infects systems running Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

Note anything missing from this list?

CP/M?
Unix?
Pascal's Calculator?

_Howard wrote:

CP/M?
Unix?
Pascal's Calculator?

Keeping moving forward in time.

I was moving backward in time. Ran out of references with Pascal. Are you clever enough to understand why that is a fitting stopping point for the answer you were seeking?

I'd wager not.

The language used to write the operating system for the Apple II was Pascal.

Apropos of what?

I had assumed that your answer to what was missing from that list was the Apple.

Yeah it was. What does the language the OS was programmed in have to do with sloppy OS design which allows malware, viruses and bloatware at every opportunity?

Absolutely nothing. Just a trivial bit of arcane info to connect the Apple to the list of non-included items I provided (I couldn't figure out how to connect Kevin Bacon).

Do you doubt that Apple computers would be the target of malware if Apples were as ubiquitous as PCs?

Yes. The OS shell is much better designed.

It is not impossible to get a virus or malware, but even those that have been created are limited in scope and cause very little damage. One reason Apples don't get viruses is their smaller market share. That other reason is that they are not as vulnerable, by design.

It's true that the Unix OS is tougher to crack.

I disagree with your statement "...they are not as vulnerable...". They either are vulnerable or they are not.

I never have and never will try to defend the abysmal quality of the lousy software that Microsoft has produced, nor will I deny that the Apple (now) has what I believe to be a better-operating machine. In fact, I'm currently pondering replacing my old desktop and am seriously considering an Apple, even though I think they are horribly overpriced. But the Apple can be as badly damaged by malware as can the PCs, given equivalent circumstance and usage. I think there are a number of reasons Apples have not been as frequently targeted by malware, but I do not for a minute think they are impervious to attack. If someone or some group decides to seriously take on the role of Apple killers, they will succeed.

I'm running OS-X 10.7 with NoScript.  It's a free add-on that prevents unauthorized scripts from being launched. It's amazing opening websites, and seeing a dozen adware hidden cookies blocked.

I highly recommend it.

The price I pay is that some websites -- mostly foreign, mostly dubious -- cannot be opened without throwing off all of my protections one by one. That is something easy enough to do, but I have chosen (I think wisely) to forego anything that looks that suspicious. It smells fishy to want to run that many scripts on my computer.

I would never go so far as claiming my computer is impervious, but I bought it in 2000 and have yet to see my first successful attack.

Apples are a shade more expensive (compare feature-for-feature, not against barebones Windows boxes) but you gets what you pays for. Nobody ever migrates away from Apple back to Microsoft.

And my time is worth SOMETHING. All that time not spent running virus scans adds up.

NoCoPilot wrote:

I'm running OS-X 10.7 with NoScript.  It's a free add-on that prevents unauthorized scripts from being launched. It's amazing opening websites, and seeing a dozen adware hidden cookies blocked.

I have a free add-on to my free browser that does the same thing.

NoCoPilot wrote:

I would never go so far as claiming my computer is impervious, but I bought it in 2000 and have yet to see my first successful attack.

I have had this windoze machine since 2001 or -2. It has had one successful attack, which I purposely initiated to test a piece of anti-virus software (which failed). Of course, I had cloned the OS hard drive first, so the fix took about three minutes to swap drives.

Didn't Apple start including anti-virus software in the machines back around OS-8?

NoCoPilot wrote:

Nobody ever migrates away from Apple back to Microsoft.

I've known people to do that, though not a lot.
Hell, the PC had been out for years - in fact the AT had been out for a while - before I switched from CP/M to MSDOS. I only did it then because the new processor I was programming for required it. As I've said, I've never been a fan of Microsoft.


Sometimes it's not safer to have an Apple. I bought my daughter an Apple 17-inch laptop (for about three grand). A couple of years later, her apartment was broken into and her Apple was stolen. Her boyfriend's Windows laptop was not taken. Discerning burglars.