That is the question I have to ask of all the media hype over this new trojan horse type attack on OSX the last couple days.
http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cultofmac/index.blog?entry_id=1415489
(link removed – article no longer available)
I wrote a response to this article as follows:
From article: “One more thing: there was talk a while back that Apple’s move to Intel chips would make the platform more susceptible to malware like this.”
First… Can you explain how Apple’s move to Intel chips would make the platform more vulnerable? Such comments show little knowledge of the difference between hardware and OS. Get a clue folks!
Second… This so called ‘first’ OSX virus is not the first attempt at OSX of this kind, as others pointed out. ANY OS would be open to this kind of attack, and probably always will be. Heck, I can write a shell script that will erase your hard drive… send it to you and tell you to run it. If you are naive enough to do that, then I will succeed. If an OS/computer did not have this ability, it would be pretty useless for 95% of users.
OSX is certainly not immune to a virus attack, but is less susceptible than Windows in many ways. Maybe one day us OSX users will have be afraid, but currently, this is just a bunch of media propaganda. (Probably jealous people who didn’t buy Apple stock.)
-Steve
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I guess I have to ask the question again. Is this just naive hysteria? Or, is it a malicious attempt to rain on Apple’s parade because of jealousy over failure to purchase stock? Or, maybe it is Jealousy from poor souls with Windows boxen attacked from every angle, who wish they would have bought a Mac instead. My guess is that deep down, it is probably the latter.
Update – Feb 22: Another article with a bit more sense on this ‘sky is falling’ media rage: