"Has ignorant users too"

That is the inevitable concomitant of commercial success. The aim, in the IT industry, is to get as many users as possible. Now, the great majority of people are pretty ignorant, and probably always will be. So the more commercially successful you get, the more ignorant your average user will be.

If I had a nickel for every time someone publishes an article coming to this SAME conclusion..... *jeezus!*
like it's a NEW revelation!?!

I don't disagree at all w/ the conclusion, but how bout' publishing something NEW for a change?
Or...can we expect to get same every time, for every *guru* hacker makes such a profound statement?!?

Next.....

"Oh, and the best bit of the interview on cnet - for those who bothered to read it - was him stating the biggest security threat was flash..."

you actually have been living under the rock just good flash security threat flash is knowen to have flaws for weeks at a time befor its fix, commone knowledge idiot try this
http://tinyurl.com/y7kvcrt

look at the top result!

and yes there are no wild viruses for osx but theres malware (which most people assume are viruses..plug)

http://goo.gl/7zX2

http://seekingalpha.com/article/52722-the-mac-os-x-malware-myth-continues

I have seen fully patched Windows machines with half-decent AV software easily get infected. And at times even if it surprisingly detect it, it can't clean it 100%. I've extensively used McAfee, Symantec, AVG, Avast, eSet, Trend Micro and even Microsoft's AV software in companies that I've worked for. I am impressed with Symantec's solution in the last couple of years. While it's not perfect, and there are false positives, at least things don't pass right through their defenses like the rest. The place I'm working for right now uses McAfee and there are infections every week. So even fully patches and protected Windows machines are not safe because it's so easy to confuse users and allow for malware to get installed. Manually removing the infections shows it's always the same types of attacks on the architecture of Windows. How can anyone feel secure using Windows when they can't plug the holes and only make us use more and more gatekeeper apps like AV, anti-spyware, or UAT software? We've all had to become professional cleanup artists with Windows. We're all searching for more and better ways to deal with bloat, garbage, or whatever causes problems. At least the other OS's have built-in maintenance scripts to deal with some of it, Windows can't be bothered and we have to look outside for free and paid for software to do it.
You can knock every other OS out there, but the facts are that Windows is more insecure than Linux or the MacOS. Period. They have done nothing to change that and to delude yourselves with a mass suggestion that it's not true only shows ignorance of facts.

The thing is which the idiot Mac users won't ever acknowledge is that there is malware in the wide attacking Mac's. Just look at the iServices botnets which was bagging over 20,000 Macs a day back in May last year. But the wonderous "belief" system of security doesn't work when these idiots go out and install these infections from acquiring hooky software off torrents.

Hell, even Apple responded and made it's own AV product...not like it publicised it since it goes against it's own marketting. But if Apple themselves make an AV product, there is a threat no matter how arrogant the fanboys are.

Malware these days is mostly about money. Credit cards and other info which can be used. And Mac security is nothing but having such a small userbase it's not worth the time to attack. But with the arrogance of the userbase, it sure makes a fantastic target.

This guy's company is about to announce a new product targeting Mac insecurity. Just like the last three articles I read about how dangerously insecure the mac is by 'security experts' flogging new products.

Step 1: Develop a solution to a non-existent problem.
Step 2: Spread fear.
Step 3: Profit!!!

If anyone bothers to read the cnet interview he produces the usual 'Mac is very insecure' statements, doesn't produce any proof of this - no viruses, no trojans, remote exploits, anything at all. If it were really that easy, why did no one bother? After all, when the Mac was dying in the 90s there were thousands of virii.

Oh, and the best bit of the interview on cnet - for those who bothered to read it - was him stating the biggest security threat was flash...

...that if Mac OS X market share continues to increase, then security software providers will try to market security solutions for Macs ... unlike the closed Ipad or Iphone platforms, they'd be able to develop and sell freely for Mac OS systems, right?

If the userbase of Mac OS increases enough that such security software firms start to develop for and market to Mac users then I think overall the situation may remain as it is now with heaps of Windows machines infiltrated by malware and people all over working to learn to keep their computers clean.

Also more software developers would develop for Mac, games makers, peripheral makers etc... then they'd just be an alternative choice, rather than a curious minority off to the side.

More truth has rarely been spoken in an Apple article.

There are LOTS of Windows machines.

Not everyone keeps their PC updated, not everyone uses Antivirus, or even a good antivirus, and some use it but don't keep theirs updated.

And some people just don't understand how to deal with viruses etc, and they are the ones that get tricked by the scam emails which contain viruses like the "USPS Shipping notification URGENT open this executable file now to get your free TV" bullshit.

I've had a lot of experience with Windows and the viruses which infect Windows and I can tell you I am much better prepared than most people.

Mac users of course are even worse off, because they have always been told their computers are invulnerable. When someone writes a decent virus for Mac (and it'll happen, eventually) They'll all be sitting there wondering what the hell just happened.

OR there's already a Mac virus but nobody has actually noticed.

The author is correct -- Mac computers are no more secure than Windows PCs. However, there is a practical truth which appears to be broadly overlooked: I've never heard of a successful virus attack against the Mac-using population. Not in the 30 years I've been in the IT industry.

On the other hand, I've heard numerous stories of PC attacks going all the way back to the early 1990s.

Have Macs been incredibly lucky? Maybe. But I'd prefer a more cogent answer.

Hey, I'm just saying...

b: Nice Gibson quote. :) It made me smile. :)

It appears to be sadly relevant.

"but steve said i was safe"
-Gomez Addams 2012

Great article...almost poetry in some sections!

But overlooked was the awesome power of the reality distortion field. Sure, it is easy to find one of many thousands of security holes in poorly-written Apple software. BUT, when it comes time for the nefarious hacker to push the final button to commence hacking user's systems, the POWER OF STEVE will reach out and prevent him/her from doing so. None of us can withstand the commands of His superior Mind, we can only do His bidding. So Apple systems must therefore be regarded as secure.

lol and queue the Fanboy, in the form of Gomez Addams, that the article talks about.

Stick your head in the sand some more. Steve says you are safe so you are.

FACT: Apple was hacked easy in pawned2own this year.

Sheech. There are 200,000,000 Macs out there. There has NEVER been one in the wild. Only "proof of concept" viruses.

Yes it's possible. But anyone who contends there are less viruses because there are less Macs is deluded.

I hate my Mac less than my Windows and love to see Tech companies criticized but stupidity like this lose cred for the Inquirer.

They're both imitating Unix, badly, and it's really their "convenience" that make weak points. You just can't have web "features", make it easy to install malware, and then give all programs web access, without obvious problems. IE is still the biggest vector of all, too.

"Banks were talking to [M$] about switching." -- From OS/2, by the way.

Question: "It turned out that at least in some of the attacks [on Google] an Internet Explorer hole was used." -- Maiffret does wonder, as I have, how *that* led into their Linux system, so I'm still taking that whole story as a fabricated cover for the Chinese objecting to the NSA aspects.

"Anytime there's been a hacking contest, within a few hours someone's found a new Apple vulnerability." -- Not true, merely demonstrated one found after lengthy previous search.

My opinion on why Apple remains relatively un-attacked, besides the solid BSD base, is that most hackers are put off by the Apple culture that one would have to be near.

Apple has never been secure....

granted there are less viruses and other malware than windows...but they do exist....
windows users aren't ignorant like mac users believe there are none, and use security software...
Apples days of security through obscurity are over

someone is gonna get the The Wig idea:

"How it was, the Finn began, Wigan Ludgate had had five years as a top jock,
which is a decent run for a cyberspace cowboy. Five years
tends to find a cowboy either rich or brain-dead, or else
financing a stable of younger cracksmen and strictly into the
managerial side. The Wig, in his first heat of youth and
glory, had stormed off on an extended pass through the rather
sparsely occupied sectors of the matrix representing those
geographical areas which had once been known as the Third
World.
Silicon doesn't wear out; microchips were effectively immortal.
The Wig took notice of the fact. Like every other
child of his age, however, he knew that silicon became
obsolete, which was worse than wearing out; this fact was a
grim and accepted constant for the Wig, like death or taxes. The Wig reasoned that all that
obsolete silicon had to be going somewhere. Where it was
going, he learned, was into any number of very poor places
struggling along with nascent industrial bases. Nations so
benighted that the concept of nation was still taken seriously.
The Wig punched himself through a couple of African backwaters
and felt like a shark cruising a swimming pool thick
with caviar. Not that any one of those tasty tiny eggs arnounted
to much, but you could just open wide and scoop, and it was
easy and filling and it added up."

Apple security is obsolete like that.