Anti-Windows Catalog

Welcoming Mac Malware Victims

Written by Gordon Fecyk, 4/26/2009

LIKE MANY WINDOWS PROFESSIONALS I laughed out loud when I read the headline, Cybercriminals create botnet using Macintosh computers. I swear, I heard angels sing! I was so excited, I couldn't read the bloody thing! Symantec, publishing their discovery of the "iBotnet," made me fall off my chair.

But the stars of this comedy show are the Apple fanboys. One distraught CBC reader and Macintosh user claimed, "no one has made a virus for MacOS X that can successfully propogate [sic] in the wild," even though Sophos consultant Graham Cluly wrote about something called Leap-A three years before the fact.

I tell you, the sight of Apple fanboys in denial over the findings of real virus experts fills my heart with joy.

IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS. Here's Apple's legions of fanboys screaming foul at Symantec, just because they discovered the thing and they're using it to sell Mac anti-virus software. And to top it all off, we have Apple pulling a 2007 anti-virus advice web page, only to say, "um, since no system can be 100% immune from every threat, running anti-virus software may offer additional protection."

Like so many Windows professionals I want to run up to my blog and write about rolling on the floor laughing at all of the Steve Jobs worshipers. Okay, so I have a weakness for kicking religious fanatics when they're down.

Unfortunately, this is not the professional way. Windows professionals deal with ignorant users and moronic designs every day, and now that Mac professionals are dealing with the same morons, we should sympathize.

After all, Symantec is an undisputed champion of selling fear, and it is dreadfully easy to avoid Mac malware, and it is stupid to download pirated software in the first place; Macintosh PCs even use Intel processors these days. So aside from the name of the system, what is really so different between them and us?

I'M NOT SAYING GIVE THEM SPECIAL TREATMENT. Only that it's time to treat these former fanboys with the respect and humility they deserve, and help keep them malware-free and save them from bad design. After all, with no Vista viruses in two years, maybe they can learn something from us.

Related Links:

• Mac malware tide on the rise -- The Register
• Apple anti-virus advice was nothing new -- The Register (Yep, same, tired old advice)
• Apple in Denial: Mac anti-virus support advice disappears off Apple website -- Sophos

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