IMHO it all boils down to the last line in the referenced article. That line is, "No system is totally safe, but Macs have a lot of architecture working in their favor."
Wen somebody tells me my system is not "totally safe" then I'm the type of person who is willing to spend a little time, energy and maybe money to move my system closer to being totally safe. Any computer and any O S is subject to misuse. While the security holes, malware and attacks targeting OSX are well documented, it is important to remember that security involves much more than preventing malware attacks. OSX and the products running on it are not immune to the malicious web sites, phishing emails, remote access to unsecured systems and numerous other malicious goodies floating around. Also remember that OSX incorporates many open source components whose code is publicly available for perusal. And if you're in the "open source is safer" crowd, then we also have plenty of closed source products with versions running on OSX which are frequent targets of bad guys. Like it or not, there are good reasons why developers invest time and money to produce software to enhance the level of protection built into OSX. 3rd party security products for OSX such as Little Snitch, ClamXav and TrueCrypt all exist to fill important holes left open in the current version of OSX. Bryan On Oct 31, 2010, at 11:05 AM, Tim Kilburn wrote: > Hi all, > > I've been watching these virus protection threads for a while and still ask > the question: > > • What makes you feel the need to have such an animal on your Mac? > > There are really no virus threats within MacOS X. There were a number of > them in OS 9 but most of you, if running Snow Leopard, don't have any OS 9 > matter on your computer anyway as Classic is no longer supported. There is > the argument that you may unintentionally pass things on as you forward > eMails from Windows users but that can be easily managed by watching what's > attached to the messages you pass on. check out this article for your own > interpretation: > > http://www.silvermac.com/2008/why-there-are-no-viruses-for-osx/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
