A lot of malware uses social engineering to become deployed, including on Windows, with or without exploits. If you don't think so, I seriously doubt that you work at Malware-Bytes in an R&D capacity, given that Malware-Bytes is the most popular tool for removing stuff that relies entirely on social engineering, e.g. Fake AV malware.
You see more social engineering and less exploitation on OSX because there is far less to exploit on OSX.
That statement might be true for applications that users typically install on these systems, but it's not true for the operating systems themselves.
In absolutely nothing I said did I make the claim that social engineering wasn't used by malware.
You made the claim that there was a level playing field with regards to security between Windows and OSX, "especially considering that a lot of malware today actually relies on social engineering rather than 0days". My response was simply that this isn't 100%, that many malware variants still use exploits to get onto systems, and that your statements based around that are also incorrect.
"especially considering that a lot of malware today actually relies on social engineering rather than 0days"
That doesn't mean "most".
My response was simply that this isn't 100%, that many malware variants still use exploits to get onto systems, and that your statements based around that are also incorrect.
I'm saying that if Windows disappeared tomorrow, malware--the pieces that exploit software or social-engineer users--wouldn't go away by any stretch of the imagination. Malware distribution would immediately and significantly increase on the now most attractive platforms.
There is nothing about the architecture of the other operating systems that make them any more resistant to malware than Windows--in fact, Windows' UAC is superior to the equivalents on both OS X and Linux.
Take something like the Chromebook or iPhone, and we'll talk.
Comments
A lot of malware uses social engineering to become deployed, including on Windows, with or without exploits. If you don't think so, I seriously doubt that you work at Malware-Bytes in an R&D capacity, given that Malware-Bytes is the most popular tool for removing stuff that relies entirely on social engineering, e.g. Fake AV malware.
That statement might be true for applications that users typically install on these systems, but it's not true for the operating systems themselves.
In absolutely nothing I said did I make the claim that social engineering wasn't used by malware.
You made the claim that there was a level playing field with regards to security between Windows and OSX, "especially considering that a lot of malware today actually relies on social engineering rather than 0days". My response was simply that this isn't 100%, that many malware variants still use exploits to get onto systems, and that your statements based around that are also incorrect.
That doesn't mean "most".
I'm saying that if Windows disappeared tomorrow, malware--the pieces that exploit software or social-engineer users--wouldn't go away by any stretch of the imagination. Malware distribution would immediately and significantly increase on the now most attractive platforms.
There is nothing about the architecture of the other operating systems that make them any more resistant to malware than Windows--in fact, Windows' UAC is superior to the equivalents on both OS X and Linux.
Take something like the Chromebook or iPhone, and we'll talk.