Snow Leopard: Possible data risk

Note I say possible, it occurs under a specific set of circumstances. Read the article to know more. The only way to recover data is if you have a back up.

ITWire

Key aspect to do is if you did a in place upgrade from Leopard disable and re-enable the guest account if you use them. This is still an outstanding issue from Apple.

You seem to like following Apple/Mac problems - so here's some links you'll probably enjoy.

All Top News - Apple
MacFixIt
Apple Support Discussions

I follow most platform problems as I usually end up having to fix them, I'm just waiting for the problems for windows 7 when it comes out

I posted this as a caution to users as I know some actually use the guest mode in studios. Also Apple are rather notorious for creating data loss issues and this isn't the first from them.

Thanks for the links.

Faolan wrote in post #8813681
Apple are rather notorious for creating data loss issues and this isn't the first from them.

Maybe so, but few top Microsoft for data loss and money loss. I'm just glad I don't use their "services".

I was waiting for someone to pipe up with the first (Danger), that's actually a subsidiary of Microsoft and not Microsoft. Regardless of that it shouldn't have happened, but then you've got look at Apple's own Cloud services and the pains it's gone through as has Amazon and Google (who have lost data themselves to a lesser degree). Cloud Computing is very much still in it's infancy and if people are trusting it with data then they are crazy. They should have had some kind of back up, I've yet to see a full post-mortem on how it happened and why. You should also note it wasn't using M$ own Azure software but rather Danger's own software than M$ inherited so whilst M$ can be seen to be responsible they aren't in regards to software. Also M$ ran a hands off policy with Danger. From what I gather it was caused by a upgrade done by Hitachi that wiped the systems out. If it's like a lot of data centres I've seen and worked in, then many don't do any off-line back up these days instead backing up to hard drive arrays just because of the sheer amount of data (think 100s of terabytes). Backing that much data onto tape takes hours if not days.

In any Apple's flaws are far closer to home, networking flaws that when copying across a LAN didn't. A Firewire bug that wiped out data (if not drives), Time Machine systems failing after a year and now this one. and that's one the ones I can recall.

The second is a nightmare to implement, a lot of malware targets PCs and have been doing that for years. If people suddenly shifted to OS X then OS X will have the same problems as Windows XP did, as much of the security OS X is riddled with holes. When SL came out it was obvious they only did a half-hearted attempt at security and much of the models are still the same from Leopard.

In Vista and Windows 7 it's far, far harder to install a keylogger, malware or anything else. In XP it's a doddle. Yet people still persist in using XP with it's attendant Administrative rights as standard. In Vista you have at least 3 layers (MRT, Windows Defender and virtual user profiles) to take out before you get to put a trojan into the system, with Windows 7 you have 4. In x64 you also have added protection in part to WoW.

Most bank thefts come from identity theft, which is system agnostic. You fool the person into entering fake details on a site that for all intents and purposes replicates a banks site. If you practice safe computing your data will be safe. If you're really paranoid use a bloody VM.

This seems to be mainly occuring for people who have upgraded from leopard with a guest account enabled. A supposed fix is to disable the guest account, and then re-enable it.

Faolan wrote in post #8814194
The second is a nightmare to implement, a lot of malware targets PCs and have been doing that for years. If people suddenly shifted to OS X then OS X will have the same problems as Windows XP did, as much of the security OS X is riddled with holes.

I've been hearing this for 10 years, but it still hasn't happened. Chicken Little, me thinks. I'll keep whistling along with my Mac. No worries.

Tony-S wrote in post #8814527
I've been hearing this for 10 years, but it still hasn't happened. Chicken Little, me thinks. I'll keep whistling along with my Mac. No worries.

OSX still has a small market share, nowhere near the 20% or so you need to start being economical to pass viruses/trojans/hacks though.

Tony-S wrote in post #8813829
Maybe so, but few top Microsoft for data loss and money loss. I'm just glad I don't use their "services".

Technically it's a venture microsoft bought, and the issue came from hitachi botching up the entire upgrade procedure. And as for loggers and such, the best practice is to have safe surfing practices... Basically, don't go to sketchy sites any more than you would pick up a girl in a sketchy corner of a major city plenty of keyloggers for OSX as well, it's just a matter of slipping them into a new desktop app for dashboard.

As for OSX having a data loss issue, all OSes to a point have had a similar glitchs to some extent (perhaps not all, but most major builds), and it's usually fixed fairly quickly.