“There has been a lot of talk in the press recently about how secure Mac OS X really is and how much Mac users have to be concerned about security,” Jim Dalrymple reports for Macworld. “While Apple said they are very serious about security concerns, Mac users, for the most part, have been unaffected. ‘Proof of concepts are out there but end users have not been affected by exploits in the wild the way they typically are with some other platforms,’ Bud Tribble, Apple’s vice president of Software Technology, told Macworld. ‘It’s never good to say don’t be concerned about security, however, the actual effects on users of our platform are minimal.'”
“‘There is certainly a tendency to make news out of every potential exploit on the Mac simply because it is more unusual than on some other platforms,’ said Tribble. ‘A lot of times when you look behind the news, it is a little bit of a stretch.’ That said Apple does fix security issues in Mac OS X whenever they arise, but most times, these are before the issues are even known publicly,” Dalrymple reports. “‘These updates tend to be more preventative,’ said Tribble. ‘They aren’t exploits in the wild that you are actively trying to prevent. Users should never be complacent about security – we aren’t here. We are extremely proactive in paying attention to these things and eliminating them when we find them.’”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The desperation in some of the recent “VIRUSES FOR MACS!” articles is testimony to Apple’s security success. Some Microsoft Windows users who’ve never tried Mac OS X have been waiting for a very long time to shout “Macs have viruses, too.” Because they shouted too loudly over too little, they showed the world their desperation for a Mac OS X security issue. However, all of the shouting doesn’t make it true, so the Windows Patchers will have to keep waiting. The degree of desperation also shows us another thing: they want to damage Mac OS X’s security, but they can’t figure out how to do so effectively. So, they settle for trying to damage Mac OS X’s security reputation instead. That’s easier. It’s not concrete, you don’t need any real proof, and you can exaggerate and lie. And a lie repeated enough effectively becomes the truth.
Mac users aren’t stupid. Quoting “security” software company spokespeople about the terrific danger we face, doesn’t have the same effect on us as it does Windows Patchers. We immediately question the source, because it’s obvious that the source has something to gain. We don’t like our firefighters to be fire extinguisher salesmen who play with matches, either.
Meanwhile, do you think some entities who would have much to gain by convincing users that they need to “do this or that, buy this or that, don’t switch to Mac” are behind the recent weak proof-of-concept exploits touted as “Mac viruses” by many of the world’s weaker-minded reporters (example)? And who benefits if the general idea that “Macs get viruses, too, and Macs are just as insecure as Windows” takes hold in the general computing public?
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