“What is believed to be the first Macintosh OS X-targeted virus was found in the wild last week, and by Tuesday at least three variants had been reported,” John C. Dvorak writes for MarketWatch. “While this will probably affect few users, it does mean the Macintosh is vulnerable. But how vulnerable, really? The answer is that we don’t know, yet. Counterintuitive as this may sound, I see it as good news for Mac users, since any vulnerability will mean that the operating system, and its users, can grow more hardened to the reality of these threats.”
“It will be interesting to see how far this gets. There are a lot of people who would like to see the robustness of the OS X operating system tested under full-on, malicious, real-world attacks,” Dvorak writes. “Which is part of why this is actually good news for Mac users and the computer community at large. It’s good news for Mac users because now security holes will be fixed early, and users will learn to become aware of these things. It’s a little bit like getting the mumps. You do not want to get this ailment as an adult. It’s also good for the computer-using community at large, since it will take some pressure off of the PC platform — at least until the new Vista operating system from Microsoft arrives and provides fresh meat for the malware coders. When and if these Mac attacks come to an end, we’ll also have a much better handle on how superior (if at all) the Mac OS really is. So congratulations, Apple.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If they were all printed on paper, the amount of garbage articles generated by these so-called “Mac viruses” could close a large landfill in a single day.
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Related articles:
Wired News: ‘Mac attack a load of crap’ – February 22, 2006
Report: Apple developing fix for automatic execution of shell scripts – February 21, 2006
Ars Technica: Fears over new Mac OS X ‘Leap-A’ trojan pointless – February 20, 2006
Datamonitor: ‘Mac OS is just as vulnerable to malware as Windows’ – February 20, 2006
Atlanta Journal-Constitution asks: Is ‘Mac virus’ all just propaganda from Mac haters? – February 20, 2006
Don’t respond the guy. He’s just trying to boost his ratings. He’s a troll trying to bait the faithful.
I guess this means that the number of viruses and critical security holes in Windows is REALLY good news for Mickeysoft!!!
MD News article: “Why a punch in Dvorak’s face would be good for Apple”
How do these guys get to be “experts”? I seriously wonder about what it takes to become a “journalist” now, or rather, what it doesn’t take to become a journalist. Things like integrity, and checking facts seem to have gone away.
Denny Crane!
Can’t say I’m surprised he got it wrong. Probably just wants hits to his page. He is right that Vista is gonna have a lot of malware.
Dvorak
Why anybody would take Dorkvak seriously after his “Apple ditches OS X for Windows in 5 years” article is a mystery to me. His presence alone is almost enough to get me to drop the TWiT podcast.
Dvorak is an idiot. Now shout it out louder!
I guess the 100,000 or more viruses for Micro$uck hasn’t made them learn a lesson…
Or am I just being obtuse?
~ Andy Dufresne
Those that can, do. Those that can’t, report about it!
(Except you, MacDailyNews, you’re awesome! *grin*)
New Headline: Dvorak writes tripe, no one responds, is fired.
Why are we even discussing him, sheesh, between the FUD and the back handed “compliments” he’d be fired anywhere else. Only the media would reward him.
I’m making a resolution to avoid this guy and any article that mentions him or any of the other jerks who do this FUD journalism.
MDN – hope, as in I hope we could have real news without the jerks getting involved.
As one who recently realized their Mac was more or less naked to the internet (router set to let Mac directly access the internet) for many months I can’t say I too worried. Did have the Mac firewall enabled but not set to be invisible on the net. A glance at the log showed pretty much continuous attempts to access the machine but no winners to report.
While I changed it immediately to correct the issue I didn’t really feel I needed to, and that’s the real difference to me in piece of mind.
To John Dvorak – As one lesbian said to the other lesbian, you the man.
Hopefully all that paper would be recycled into toilet paper instead.
MacPuke – Awesome!
Thanks!
PCP is very good for Dovrak too! I suggest him to change his Klingon name to a more humand like name. Just drop the v and the a.
“It’s a little bit like getting the mumps. You do not want to get this ailment as an adult.”
The Unix underlying OSX is not a child or an adult. It’s more of a grandfather. Believe me the hackers already know this.
between this guy and enderle they have their own little nuthouse.
what idiots. i would say dont feed the trolls either, they are trying to get traffic because they are too lazy to make a living actually doing work.
Proof!!
iMactels are pieces of garbage!
Though an improvement over the previous iMac, when it comes to running 3D games at high resolution and quality, the iMac Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz (20") is still not in the same league as a G5 Power Mac sporting a good graphics card.http://www.barefeats.com/imcd2.html
Hmmm lets do some math.
PowerMac Dual processor each 2 ghz $3000
Monitor to match iMac $1000
Good graphic card upgrade $250
Can upgrade video card? YES!
Total life expectancy 3D gaming for CPU 5 years or more =$850 year
iMactel Core Duo with integraded video card, monitor $1700
Can upgrade video card? NO!
Total life expectancy for so so 3D gaming 2 years =$850 year
Another writer, writing an article based on what others are writing about. Not one ounce of effort of research by this writer to gather facts.
The glee these PC users get with the potential of an Apple Mac OS “virus” is so strange. These PC folks want a Mac virus so badly, just to justify there use of an inferior product. Microsoft Windows.
Over the years when I’ve read articles writtent this way, the PC users want to switch to Apple, but are so afraid of what otehrs opions of them will be. It’s so weird.
I tried to email the writer too from his site, but on hitting send on the web form, it failed. Why am I not surprised?
“But how vulnerable, really? The answer is that we don’t know, yet.”
We DO know that this virus can’t spread on the Internet!
Maybe the next one? But not this one!
I hate to say it, but I’m inclined to agree with him just a bit. If hackers & crackers take their best shots at OS X and come up with some minor possible holes, Apple will be able to close those and we’ll all be better off.
John Dvorak should limit his commentary on Apple and Macintosh to the same as Apple’s marketshare vs. Windows.
If Windows has 95-percent, and the Mac has 5-percent, John should be limited to one article in twenty regarding Apple and the Mac.
It’s only fair.
Uh, fair to us.
Tera Patricks
TeraTalks
BTW #1 – Even John should know that neither of the recent malware are considered viruses (virii?).
BTW #2 – Dvorak is a little like the mumps. You don’t want this ailment as an adult.
All those IT-experts en analists make their income with services to the “to configurate for anything” computers..
Dvoarks logic is just so backwards. I can’t believe someone actually pays him to write this crap.
All Hail Tara!