“All, right, I’m sick of people reporting that Mac OS X is ‘mostly’ virus-free. It is, as far has been proven, ENTIRELY virus-free. Macs are not magical, and one day there will be virus that infects them. However, I don’t think it’s happened yet, and I think it’s time we, the Mac community, started saying, ‘No, we don’t have any viruses,” Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster fame writes in his blog “Call Me Fishmeal.”
“Let me be clear: not having had a virus is NOT the same as being immune to viruses. I think part of the reason almost nobody has been willing to stand up on this crusade has been that we get shouted down with cries of, ‘Well, no OS is perfect; Mac OS X will get its virus!’ And I have no doubt we will. But Windows gets a virus every freaking week, and we’ve never had ONE. I think that’s also relevant,” Shipley writes.
“I’ll admit, others have come up with the idea of offering a bounty for Mac OS X viruses before, but I think those plans failed due to the way the challenge was structured. I don’t want to incite someone to create the first Mac OS X virus,” Shipley writes. “I’m going to offer a bounty of $500 to the first person who can prove that a Mac running Mac OS X (version 10.0 or greater, and patched to the latest security level available at the time from Apple) was accidentally and detrimentally infected with a virus that exploited a flaw in the base Mac OS X installation (not, say, Microsoft Word) before September 20, 2005. The definition of ‘virus’ will for this contest will be either a virus or worm as described by the wikipedia. The challenge ends at 23:59:00, October 16, 2005.”
Shipley writes, “I will only offer this bounty once, and as you can see, the deadline for the viruses to have done their dirty work is in the past. So, if you’re planning to write a new virus just to win the challenge, well… that won’t work unless you also make a time machine. (Which, frankly, I’d be willing to fund for $500.) This is a research project, not a programming project: find one of us who has been infected at some time, and tell the world about it.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As regular readers know, we call writers on their descriptions of Mac OS X as “mostly virus-free” whenever we see it happening. Mac OS X to date has had no (zero) known viruses.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple hires Delicious Monster co-founder, user interface designer – July 22, 2005
Symantec: 10,866 new Microsoft Windows virus and worm variants in first half 2005 – September 19, 2005
Cargo magazine describes Apple’s Mac OS X’s immunity to viruses, spyware as ‘relative’ – September 10, 2005
ZDNet Australia publishes latest Mac OS X security FUD article – September 9, 2005
Hackers already targeting viruses for Microsoft’s Windows Vista – August 04, 2005
16-percent of computer users are unaffected by viruses, malware because they use Apple Macs – June 15, 2005
ZDNet: How many Mac OS X users affected by the last 100 viruses? None, zero, not one, not ever – August 18, 2005
Intel CEO Otellini: If you want security now, buy a Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC – May 25, 2005
Apple touts Mac OS X security advantages over Windows – April 13, 2005
97,467 Microsoft Windows viruses vs. zero for Apple Mac’s OS X – April 05, 2005
Joke of the month: Gartner warns of Mac OS X ‘spyware infestation’ potential – March 30, 2005
Symantec details flaws in its antivirus software – March 30, 2005
Motley Fool writer: ‘I’d be surprised if Symantec ever sells a single product to a Mac user again’ – March 24, 2005
Symantec cries wolf with misplaced Mac OS X ‘security’ warning – March 23, 2005
Symantec’s Mac OS X claims dismissed as nonsense, FUD – March 22, 2005
Symantec warns about Mac OS X security threat – March 21, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X is virus-free – March 18, 2005
Cybersecurity advisor Clarke questions why anybody would buy from Microsoft – February 18, 2005
Security test: Windows XP system easily compromised while Apple’s Mac OS X stands safe and secure – November 30, 2004
Apple: ‘Opener’ is not a virus, Trojan horse, or worm – November 02, 2004
Microsoft: The safest way to run Windows is on your Mac – October 08, 2004
Information Security Investigator says switch from Windows to Mac OS X for security – September 24, 2004
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 21, 2003
Columnist tries the ‘security through obscurity’ myth to defend Windows vs. Macs on virus front – October 1, 2003
New York Times: Mac OS X ‘much more secure than Windows XP’ – September 18, 2003
Fortune columnist: ‘get a Mac’ to thwart viruses; right answer for the wrong reasons – September 02, 2003
Shattering the Mac OS X ‘security through obscurity’ myth – August 28, 2003
Virus and worm problems not just due to market share; Windows inherently insecure vs. Mac OS X – August 24, 2003
Sometimes I’m just blown away by the (lack of) reading comprehension skills of MDN posters. It’s like some comments are so far from TFA that I think they must have posted to the wrong forum. S’ok… I don’t blame you… I put the blame on today’s high schools.
Why – let me put it to you this way (assuming you’re male)…
Let’s say you’re on a first date, and you’ve double dated with a friend. While you’re off taking a piss your date asks your friend, “Does Why have any STD’s?”
Would you rather your friend answer:
a) “He’s relatively virus free.”
-or-
b) “He hasn’t had a virus so far.”
“no viruses for Macs” is a completely different statement than “no viruses for OS X.” The statement, “Macs are mostly virus free” is factually correct.
Most of you would probably agree that OS X is not completely immune to a virus attack, thus, it is within the realm of possibility that a virus for OS X may appear sometime in the future. Then the statment, “OS X is mostly virus free” will be a completely accurate statement. Will that mean that OS X will be any less secure than it is now? Will all of you guys suddenly start preaching about how insecure Macs are? Do you think sales will suddently drop because of that one virus? No, of course not. The reason is because the difference between zero and one virus is so small when compared to 60,000 that people will still understand that Macs are much safer than Windows PCs.
So by making such a big deal about it now, if/when a virus does appear, you have already given a reason for people to not purchase a Mac. You’re already saying that if OS X gets a virus, it’s not a good OS. What I’m trying to say is that whether or not a virus appears sometime in the next five years, OS X is still a secure OS.
Aaaagghhhhhhhhh
Please read the damn article before you race to leave comments. Or maybe MDN should just post the headlines sans the clippings, comments and links and we can just comment on those.
Sorry I just go nuts with this ….
Wouldn’t it be safe to say that since the Mac runs the Windows application, Office, that a virus has indeed been found on the Mac, because, by definition, Windows is an on-going virus in its own rite.
(-;
Sorry Why, but I live in the present, and presently OS X has zero viruses. Therefore, the statement, “OS X is mostly virus free” is completely inaccurate. When an OS X virus finally rears it’s ugly head, then we can all say the Mac is relatively virus free. But until then why can’t we call a spade, “A spade”?
The Apple Macintosh currently sold by Apple Computer, Inc. offers a virus free computing experience.
See how easy that is…and it’s true.
Bill,
If you read my post you would see that I wasn’t disputing the innacuracy of the statement, “OS X is mostly virus free.”
The reason why Windows viruses keep appearing is that virus writers keep finding ways re-opening back doors into the system that should have not been there in the first place, and apparently cannot be permanently closed.
That is a fundamental flaw in the system. So if there were ony two Windows computers in existence, they could be infected repeatedly.
Within 8 hours, 10,000 Windows computers with Vista were infected.
Can you say SMALL market share? I thought you could!
16 million copies of OSX. No viruses. Do the math. I thought you could!
If you want to use the small market share argument that dumbasses keep proposing over and over even after Seahawk and others keep disposing of it, then use the above comparison.
But to do so seems to validate what is referred to as Einstein’s Theory of Insanity, which reads; Keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
It’s been 5 years, folks. Yes, it is theoretically possible to create an OSX virus. But based upon any kind of statistical analysis, it is far more likely that it would have been done previous to todays date, than in the future. Especially since Apple seems to react far more quickly to potential security weak spots.
Microsoft has to keep re-closing doors over and over again, since most Windows viruses are actually new versions of old viruses.
Scary thought, huh?
A virus a week for Windoze? Hmmm… about a 100,000 Windoze viruses we know about (makes you wonder how many we might not know about, eh?), divided by 52 weeks in a year… hmmm, Windoze has been around for somewhere around 2,000 years! How old is that Gates fellow anyhow? He must be Satan, cause no mortal can live that long!
Sophos reported it found 959 viruses last month alone.
I just sneezed on my iMac and I have the flu.. Where do I collect my $500?
Even if he upped the offer to $5 Billion USD, there would be no takers! There are NO Mac OS virus!
Will Shipley is so very cool!!!
Tops on the agenda for 2005: create a computer supervirus that will infect and destroy all Apple computers, and release it if they don’t pay the ransom of ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!
Muuuuuhaaaahhahhhahhhahahahahahhah!
MuuuuuuhaaaaHAAHAAHAAHAHAHHAAHA!!!
MUUUUUUUAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAAHAH!!!!!
Software viruses are old hat. Do you know how many x86 processors are out there?
I’m okay with the statement that “Macs are relatively immune to viruses”
IF that statement is accompanied by the following in its entirety:
Macs are relatively immune to viruses. There have been none reported to date, but there is a finite possibility of viruses in the future. The design of the operating system makes it difficult for viruses to propagate, adding to the security of the Mac OS.
Windows on the other hand, has been proven to be insecure, with an estimated 100,000 viruses discovered so far, and additional viruses discovered on a weekly basis. The complexity of the Windows code base and the design of the OS (particularly with a central Registry that can be corrupted and altered by 3rd party programs) makes it very unlikely that Windows can be secured without substantial changes in the OS that may break current applications.
There, that seems fair to me.
I infected my Mac with a virus. But now the keys are all sticky….sshee?
I bet five dollar the guy who wrote this article broke down in tears like Chris Croker. (stop picking on mac, leave mac alone, sniffle”