Apple is 10 years behind Microsoft when it comes to security. Time to face the music…

 

http://malware.cbronline.com/news/apple-10-years-behind-microsoft-on-security-kaspersky-250412

Credits goto Steve Evans & CBR Online
http://malware.cbronline.com/archive/4294941974

It seems it’s time to face the music for Apple..

Kaspersky founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky,
speaking exclusively to CBR at Info Security 2012, Kaspersky told us that Apple is a long way behind Microsoft when it comes to security and will have to change the ways it approaches updates following the recent malware attacks.

"I think they are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security," Kaspersky told CBR. "For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It's always been possible to develop Mac malware, but this one was a bit different. For example it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms."

Kaspersky added that his company is seeing more and more malware aimed at Macs, which is unsurprising given the huge number of devices being sold. Its most recent quarter revealed Mac sales of 4 million, a 7% rise on the year ago quarter. These figures are still dwarfed by PC sales of course, and Kaspersky said Windows will remain the primary target for cyber criminals.

However he added an increase in Mac malware was, "just a question of time and market share. Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it's not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft's world, Mac. It's full of malware."

"Apple is now entering the same world as Microsoft has been in for more than 10 years: updates, security patches and so on," he added. "We now expect to see more and more because cyber criminals learn from success and this was the first successful one."

Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI)

 

Upon stumbling through the web, I found a nice tool to check the installed software for security issues and out-dated programs.
So I thought I’d shared it with you…

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

They even have an online scanning tool, so you don’t need to install the application http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/

Screenshot PSI application :

FREE PC Security for Home Users

The Secunia PSI is a FREE security tool designed to detect vulnerable and out-dated programs and plug-ins which expose your PC to attacks. Attacks exploiting vulnerable programs and plug-ins are rarely blocked by traditional anti-virus and are therefore increasingly "popular" among criminals.
The only solution to block these kind of attacks is to apply security updates, commonly referred to as patches.
Patches are offered free-of-charge by most software vendors, however, finding all these patches is a tedious and time consuming task.
Secunia PSI automates this and alerts you when your programs and plug-ins require updating to stay secure.
Download the Secunia PSI now and secure your PC today - free-of-charge.

Watch: How to install and use the Secunia PSI 2.0

Current version:
2.0

Latest release:
5th Jan, 2011

File size:
1,737,088 bytes

Alternate download link: ftp://ftp.secunia.com/PSISetup.exe

Older version of the Secunia PSI can be downloaded at:

http://secunia.com/PSI1Setup.exe

System Requirements

The list of requirements that must be met for the Secunia PSI to function correctly are:

Supported Operating Systems (32 & 64 bit):

• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft Windows Vista SP 1 or later
• Microsoft Windows XP - SP 3

Privileges

To install and run the Secunia PSI you require administrative privileges.

Connectivity

Access to Secunia's encrypted servers via SSL (https://psi.secunia.com:443/) and access to Microsoft Windows Update servers,
see also Software Requirements below

Software Requirements

The latest version of Microsoft Update.
You can determine whether or not you are running the latest version by visiting update.microsoft.com.
If you are able to check your system for missing updates through this tool, your system should function properly with the Secunia PSI.

Hardware Requirements:

There are no additional hardware requirements.
If your computer runs any of the above mentioned Operating Systems, then Secunia PSI should work.

Some Useful Functions

Sometimes you may want to convert a string into a byte array, or vice versa, especially when you are using the Cryptographic APIs. I have provided three functions here to help you make the conversions. The three functions are:

stringcharToByteArray(): converts a string of characters to a byte array.
stringToByteArray(): converts a string of numbers into a byte array.
byteArrayToString(): converts a byte array into a string.

    Public Function stringcharToByteArray(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

        'e.g. "abcdefg" to {a,b,c,d,e,f,g}

        Dim s As Char()

        s = str.ToCharArray

        Dim b(s.Length - 1) As Byte

        Dim i As Integer

        For i = 0 To s.Length - 1

            b(i) = Convert.ToByte(s(i))

        Next

        Return b

    End Function

    Public Function stringToByteArray(ByVal str As String) As Byte()

        ' e.g. "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16" to 

        '{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}

        Dim s As String()

        s = str.Split(" ")

        Dim b(s.Length - 1) As Byte

        Dim i As Integer

        For i = 0 To s.Length - 1

            b(i) = Convert.ToByte(s(i))

        Next

        Return b

    End Function

    Public Function byteArrayToString(ByVal b() As Byte) As String

        Dim i As Integer

        Dim s As New System.Text.StringBuilder()

        For i = 0 To b.Length - 1

            Console.WriteLine(b(i))

            If i <> b.Length - 1 Then

                s.Append(b(i) & " ")

            Else

                s.Append(b(i))

            End If

        Next

        Return s.ToString

    End Function

VB.NET Is Admin Function

Did you ever want to know if the user has Administrator rights?
Some programs rely on the user to be an administrator, this simple function does just that.

Credits Digital Thunder : http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/SysInfo.aspx

Imports System.Security.Principal

Imports System.Threading

' A function to return the Admin status of the user running our program.

   Public Function IsAdmin() As Boolean

       IsAdmin = False

       Dim securityGroup As WindowsPrincipal

       ' Get the security credentials of the user that is running our program.

       AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetPrincipalPolicy(PrincipalPolicy.WindowsPrincipal)

       securityGroup = CType(Thread.CurrentPrincipal, WindowsPrincipal)

       ' Are they a member of the Administrators Group?

       If securityGroup.IsInRole(WindowsBuiltInRole.Administrator) Then

           IsAdmin = True

       End If

       Return IsAdmin

   End Function