[Hawkeye_a]

I'm curious about the whole security on the Mac vs a Windows PC. We've heard so much about this stuff, that the mac is so much better at security than PCs, etc.

I recently read some article in a newspaper about the 'Spam king', and the a rticle talked about botnets and stuff that seemed out of a sci-fi movie. It also mentioned a way for hackers to direct you to a website (using some e-card scam) and that website automatically installs a script that can access your browser's cookies, track your key strokes, websites you visit, and something that can even get your computer's configuration.

Now, my extent of computer security is clicking the 'start' button for the firewall in system preferences. I'm curious about the risks and how secure the apps we use to connect to the internet (almost all these days) actually are on the mac specifically.

[seanc]

Stuff that can track your keystrokes are keyloggers.

As for websites accessing your computer, IE with ActiveX through to the first incarnations of 6 were able to do this as they pleased via Active X.

I believe that the apps we use on OS X are secure. I don't see how they'd install a malicious script without a user having to click it or give permission for it to run, browsers in OS X don't have access to the system as they please, and even then the script would have to me coded for the Mac platform.

[analogika]

There's about fifty threads on this in the Mac OS X forum, with at least two of them current within the past two days...

[ThinkInsane]

Originally Posted by analogika 

There's about fifty threads on this in the Mac OS X forum, with at least two of them current within the past two days...

What he said.