[X Newbies] Apple and all of these viruses?

[Vincent Cayenne]

At 9:30 AM -0400 8/24/03, Florin Alexander Neumann wrote:
>(2) Does that mean the Mac is invulnerable and I don't need a virus utility?
>A: No. Mac viruses are rare, and there have been no OS X viruses 
>reported as yet. But it's likely that it's only a matter of time 
>before an OS X virus shows up.

Why, oh why, is this presented as one point?

...Does that mean the Mac is invulnerable? To currently known 
malware, yes. Which has no bearing whatsoever on what is yet 
unwritten or unknown.

...Does that mean that I don't need a virus utility? No, you don't 
need a virus utility to protect you from Mac OS X viruses - none are 
yet known to exist. You can acquire a utility to 1) prevent/remove 
Windows viruses on your Mac (halting propagation), 2) prevent/remove 
malingnant macros that exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's macro 
language in its cross-platform Office line. You *cannot* purchase a 
virus utility to protect you from as-yet-unknown/unwritten malware 
unless you actually believe that such code will be written without 
current preventative mechanisms in mind.

-- 
'tis as said. [Reality is defined by being described]