Computer 'Worms' Turn on Macs

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Macs have been laregly immune to the viruses, worms and malware that have plagued PCs, but the Mac's recent popularity uptick has meant that 'bad guys appear to be casing the joint,' the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the signs: two recently discovered worms and the discovery of a vulnerability in Mac OS X that leaves Safari open to a hack. A Symantec engineer predicts a 'gradual erosion' of the idea that Macs are a safer operating system than Windows. 'Some security experts believe hackers are becoming more interested in writing nasty code for Macs precisely because of reports of its relative immunity to security woes,' the WSJ reports. 'Apple itself has gone out of its way not to promote the Mac's relative safety, lest it tempt hackers to prove the company wrong. Apple declined to discuss the topic of security in depth for this article.'"

Comments

Wired article re: Mac security

[Kaimelar]

A recent columnist at Wired said what I was thinking already:

From the linked article:

"These Mac security holes are a storm in a teacup. They've inspired hundreds of stories in the press and even the national network news, but if they were Windows holes, no one would have blinked.

That's because holes in Windows are routine, business as usual, while it now appears the Mac is under attack thanks to Apple's brand-new high profile. But this isn't the case.

Last month, there were four "massive" virus attacks on Windows, according to Commtouch, an antispam and antivirus vendor. Indeed, viruses are now so aggressive, they routinely outpace attempts by antivirus companies to distribute protective signatures.

This state of affairs is now so common, I hadn't noticed -- and I work for a technology news site. "Virulent computer virus infects millions worldwide, other non-news at 11."

These Mac "threats" are only news because of their novelty, not the threat level they pose."

Re:Popularity decides if an OS is secure.

[SpooForBrains]

The only supporting argument for this oft-repeated fallacy is that Windows has the biggest market share and the biggest number of security holes.

Far be it for me to shatter your little bubble, but Apache Web Server is more popular than IIS, and has significantly less critical exploits.

God, it feels like Karma whoring just pointing out something so bloody obvious.