Where's A Good Mac Virus When You Need It?

by , 10:00 AM EDT, September 18th, 2002

I wish someone would create a widespread virus for Mac OS X.

Please hear me out before you call the proper authorities, or the guys with the rubber truck, to haul me away.

The Macintosh community is way too arrogant, especially when it comes to the dangers that viruses pose. How often do we hear about a Windows user who needed to do a complete reinstall, and then say to ourselves "Hah! That's why I use a Mac." We even brag about our perceived invulnerability and tout it as a feature to prospective Switchers. Sure there have been Mac viruses like the Autostart worm and SevenDust/666 but for the most part, they have turned out to be relatively harmless. We've certainly never been rocked by a virus like Kuang2, Klez.D or CIH.

In System 7 through OS 9 our near-immunity was largely due to the smaller user base and the smaller programming community. Most of the virus writing troublemakers didn't even waste their time learning how to code for the Mac, but OS X is basically Unix, a much more widely used platform. The larger programming community for Unix, a fact that was often boasted by Apple itself, could turn around and bite us.

These happy virus-free days are numbered, people. The day is coming when a malicious virus that is targeted at the OS X community will hit and hit hard. I guarantee it. With our collective guard down, It won't even be a challenge. How many of you take any steps to protect your OS X system from them? I'll bet that percentage isn't very high.

Maybe we need a scare. A widespread non-malicious virus would surely give us the kick in the pants we all so richly deserve and need. A little panic might remind us to closely inspect e-mail attachments and keep anti-virus programs up to date. In fact, I don't even own an anti-virus program so I am just as guilty.

Some measure of innocence might be lost. After all, it does feel good to believe we are the safest major platform on the market, but I'd much rather raise my guard because of a harmless annoyance than a deleted hard drive. We can still tout infection superiority while taking the proper precautions to keep it that way.