Graham Cluley Mac Quotations

Viruses emerging for the Mac OS X platform is headline news for Apple fans, but they are currently posing far from the level of threat that Windows users face every day. No-one should panic, but this is an indication that hackers are showing an increased interest in targeting the platform.

The question on everyone's lips is - when will we see the next one, and will it have a more malicious payload. Apple Mac users need to be just as careful about protecting their computers with anti-virus software, firewalls and security patches as their friends and colleagues using Windows.

Every month Microsoft releases security patches for its software - and it's often a race against time for companies to roll these patches out across their business before a hacker takes advantage of the vulnerability. A security hole which allows hackers with malicious intentions to run code on Windows or Apple Mac computers is very serious, and all affected users should ensure they have defended their systems.

Some owners of Mac computers have held the belief that Mac OS X is incapable of harboring computer viruses, but Leap-A will leave them shell-shocked.

This is the first real virus to infect the Mac OS X. It's always been presented and marketed as a much safer operating system.

This is the first real virus for the Mac OS X platform. Apple Mac users need to be just as careful running unknown or unsolicited code on their computers as their friends and colleagues running Windows.

It's disturbing to see a second worm for Mac OS X so soon after the first, but it should be remembered that this is only two compared to well over 100,000 viruses for Microsoft operating systems.