Technology commentator Bill Thompson responds to the feedback he received over his column suggesting that Mac users are too smug about computer security in his latest article for BBC News.
“The vehemence with which the Mac community greeted my modest suggestion that the security of Mac OS might not be absolute did not surprise me,” Thompson writes. “I wrote it because I’m a Mac user, among other things, and I worry that we do not take security seriously enough as a community. Despite what some people seem to think having read the piece, I don’t believe that Mac viruses already exist, and I think it’s very unlikely that they ever will. The security model in Unix-based operating systems like Darwin means that it is very hard to see how an infection could spread, even if an executable could be compromised. But viruses aren’t the end of the problem. There are lots of other malicious programs out there, and the Mac is vulnerable to some of them. If we ignore this then when an effective piece of Mac malware does emerge, many will be defenceless, and that will damage individual users and the Macintosh ideology.”
“Let’s deal with the bits that are weak in my article,” Thompson writes. “First, I mentioned that my broadband connection means I have to scan for viruses, but failed to point out that I scan my Windows desktop and my children’s Windows PCs. I don’t have anti-virus software for my Mac, and I don’t think I need it. I have never claimed there are Mac viruses out there, and I said in the piece that they are unlikely, but I should have made that clearer.”
“Several people asked me for examples of worms, spyware, keyloggers and even viruses for the Mac,” Thompson writes. “As I’ve said – let me say it again – there aren’t any viruses and I don’t think there will be. But spyware and keyloggers are written for Mac OS as for other Unixes, and could be installed on a compromised system by a worm or even by a Trojan that is installed with user permission.”
Thompson’s full backpedaling article, and quite a muddled mea culpa it is, here.
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Related article:
BBC News Tech columnist: Mac users ‘too smug’ over security – January 16, 2006