Mac OS X V 10.6.6 had 23 security flaws that could be exploited that were patched in 10.6.7 (unlike the hundreds that are discovered on windoze and addressed constantly). Anything man makes has flaws which is why there are security updates in OS X. Fortunately, Apple has been great at identifying and alleviating these threats before it becomes a real problem. But as more patches are made, more flaws are bound to be found.

You are much less likely to suffer an attack on a Mac than a windoze machine. The simple rule still applies: You must give it permission to enter in some shape, form or fashion. We seen this scareware week before last and laughed at it, but, we also know there are idiots who will click on it to install the malware. Plain and simple. Don't let it in and it won't bite you.

Just this week one of my staff had an attempt made on her desktop. She was screwing around with her personal yahoo account and had a "you are infected, load this program" screen. She was smart enough not to do anything except come to me to say that there was something strange happening with her computer.

Could have been a disaster; we had a major deadline looming on Friday with four huge applications due and everything on the system. If she had been stupid enough to load the thing we would have been out several million in potential grant dollars.

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2005 C240 4matic wagon (daily driver)
87 190D - 225K (on loan)
85 190D - 312K (on loan)
2011 Subaru Legacy AWD (Wife's)

FYI, the MacDefender patch is out this morning; run Software Update.

FYI . . . the patch has already been defeated.

Only if you download it.

The patch will make sure you don't have the original variant so it's worth downloading.