The Big Lie: Ira Winkler Calls for FTC computer security investigation... of Apple!
In his autobiography Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler — one of the most successful propagandists of all time — defines the "Big Lie" as a distortion so "colossal" that it strains the mind to think someone would "have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously". Joseph Goebbels expanded on the idea. Goebbels said, in essence, that to be believed one needed to lie big, lie often, and lie repeatedly. Basically, the more outrageous the claim and the more thoroughly, unbelievably foolish the concept, the more likely it is to be accepted and believed if you just repeat the lie often enough and loudly enough. Small lies raise suspicion, but if the lie is utterly outrageous everyone will think it is so fantastic a tale that it simply must be true. The practice remains in use today.
Case in point...
Computerworld's security section today posted an article by Ira Winkler, calling for an FTC investigation of computer security — specifically, of Macintosh computer security. If that doesn't get a "Say Whaaaaaaaat?!?" reaction out of you, you are either completely out of touch, or Rob Enderle. (Those two states are not incompatible, come to think of it.)
The level of insecurity of Microsoft's various incarnations of Windows cannot be honestly described without the term "infamous" being applied somewhere. The amount of corporate and personal money and time lost to keeping the world's Windows systems secure enough just for routine day-to-day use is staggering. It is impossible to operate a Windows-based computer that does not have separately-purchased, carefully maintained and performance-crippling security software while attached to the internet for normal tasks such as web surfing, email, etc. without soon having various security holes, malware and viruses cripple the system utterly beyond usability. Let me condense that long sentence for you. An out-of-the-box Windows system without separate and well-maintained security software is probably toast almost as soon as you connect it to the internet.
On the other hand, a Macintosh computer running OS X is, out of the box, unlikely in the extreme to suffer from any form of malware, virus, or security flaw while being used for routine personal or office tasks in a moderately prudent manner. There are no known OS X viruses in the wild. None. The only malware known in the wild must be specifically and deliberately installed by a user who has been tricked into it by some sort of social engineering dodge (or who does so deliberately to "demonstrate" an OS X security "flaw").
According to Symantec in 2007 there were well over one million different known pieces of malware floating around that could adversely affect a personal computer. The vast majority — nay, almost ALL of those — affect only Windows PCs. Less than 40 affect Macs even by the most pessimistic of estimates. And of those, you can count the ones in the wild that affect most known OS X installs on the fingers of one hand.
And yet, given this astonishing disparity of vulnerability (in any practical sense) between Macs and Windows PCs, Ira Winkler says that the FTC should investigate Apple because "the current Mac commercials specifically imply that Windows PCs are vulnerable to viruses and other attacks, and Macs are not."
That's a distortion in itself, of course. Apple's commercials claim only that Macs are not vulnerable to the vast and terrible army of security holes, viruses and malware that plague Windows systems. This claim is absolutely true. Malware does exist that will affect Macs, but almost no business or home user of OS X is ever likely to encounter it. But why point at the slightly porous nature of a tiny part of Apple's cell wall and ignore the barn doors open on both ends of the Windows edifice marked with signs in seventy-three languages saying "please enter here"? Does Winkler sincerely expect Apple to go out of the way to spotlight a microscopic "non-threat" in their ads, when Microsoft is not about to tell people honestly in their ads that Windows in all forms (and ONLY Windows) is a Swiss cheese of security vulnerabilities, requiring expensive subscriptions to third-party software updates ad infinitum just to maintain daily usability?
Perhaps Winkler feels that the fight to make Windows even moderately secure is so ludicrously unwinnable that he can't expect Microsoft to try any more. Perhaps he just put out this ridiculous call for an FTC investigation of Apple because he is using an obviously absurd premise to encourage Apple to continue to keep the tightest of seals on their own software as it is the only hope for personal computing in the face of the crumbling, unmanageable mess that is Microsoft's operating system.
No, I don't think so, either. I think he's just trying to get a few webpage hits and attaboys from the endless array of Microsoft apologists and Apple haters — and even more hits from Mac users who will jump to defend Apple. Which is why you can read this whole blog post and not find any sort of link to Winkler's article. He's got the bully pulpit already, and doesn't need my puny help to spread the Big Lie. But he does need you. Are you going to help him?
Posted by Guy McLimore at 5/26/2009 4:36 PM 
Categories: Opinion,Macintosh,Boneheads,General Apple News
Categories: Opinion,Macintosh,Boneheads,General Apple News
this is great article, i learn so much from here. thanks a million.
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