Apple should kill the beast before it grows teeth

Is Apple going to get serious about security?

Every percentage point gained for OS X (and remember, OS X includes iPhones) means that much more interest by virus and trojan creators. We're not in deep doo-doo yet, but there is enough crap out there that with a little bad luck (or a whole bunch of stupidity), you could step into something nasty. The OS X virus/malware threat may still be in its infancy, but why would Apple wait until it becomes a big scary monster with giant teeth?

Microsoft is going to put a free a/v tool into its systems. That will augment the malware tools they already have. It's years late, but Microsoft is finally doing the right thing.

Why isn't Apple?

It doesn't have to cost much. They could at least include ClamAV as they do on the OS X server. It would be nice if they threw a little money in that direction and maybe to ClamXAV also.

I certainly don't mean to imply that this is ALL Apple needs to do. Obviously they have plenty of other things that could be improved in the security realm. This is just something simple and obvious.

It could be that Apple doesn't want to do this for political reasons. The security/virus/malware problems of Microsoft make great fodder for Apple ads. I hope that's not what is keeping them from this - if so, they are idiots. After all, they could pitch this as something being done for the same reason they do it on the server OS: it's a multicultural world, your OS X machine could be a host for Windows problems, yadda yadda. No admission of culpability or danger.

Or they could just be honest and say they want to stay on top of the threat and keep the problem from growing. There's plenty of hay to be made pointing out what a piss-poor job Microsoft has done in the past. Though if Apple does want to take the holier than thou path, they had better make sure they really are holier or they'll end up looking like real idiots. Of course if they continue with their current "let's mostly ignore this" protocol, looking like idiots is inevitable.

C'mon, Apple: get on the stick.

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Fri Jun 12 18:57:29 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Here's the ad:

Justin Long tells Goodman he has a message for him.

Goodman reacts suspiciously: "A message from whom?"

Justin says "It's from one of your PC cousins."

Goodman backs away, waving his arms - "I don't know what viruses they might have - I don't want the message - no, NO!"

Justin waves of Goodman's concern. "Don't worry - I already scanned it for problems. It's perfectly safe.."





Fri Jun 12 21:34:57 2009: Subject:   BrettLegree
http://6weeks.ca

You make a strong point here Tony - even if OS X were immune to everything, shouldn't users help prevent the spread?

Kind of like getting a flu shot or another kind of vaccination.



Tue Aug 25 22:02:22 2009: Subject:   TonyLawrence


Good news: Apple adds malware blocker in Snow Leopard http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=4104&tag=nl.e589







Tue Aug 25 22:41:52 2009: Subject:   BrettLegree
http://6weeks.ca

Just one of many reasons to consider an upgrade (I know I'll be ordering soon...)

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