Dvorak on Mac OS X virus

Musing on the recent reports on new Mac OS X-specific worms, tech pundit John Dvorak says that the threats are good news for Mac users. "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." Dvorak cited the fact that Panda Software registered more than 46,000 new viruses and other threats in 2005, and that only one-tenth of these new threats are fully understood, according to MarketWatch. "The sudden appearance of malicious code for computers made by Apple is likely to spark the resumption of a strange competition within the malware-coding community to get attention in the newspaper," Dvorak added. "Make no mistake; that's what all this is really about: bragging rights in an underworld of introverted hobbyists out to amaze their strange community of nebulous friends." Dvorak believes that Mac OS X is better off being hardened early in its life, rather than later, and mentioned his thoughts on the future. "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."

by MacNN Staff