[Mike Nomad]

I run different AV product across multiple machines: ClamX AV; iAntiVirus. Used to run Sophos, when I had access to it. A few times over the years, the AV products have actually found things. Not that it mattered in the immediate: OS X doesn't know what to do with an EXE file.

Upon reading the article, there was nothing new, and the still-muddied, more-of-the-same: Are we talking about stuff that hit the OS, or applications in the environment?

OS X has never had an OS-specific virus/malware/etc. However, a machine is still capable of serving as a Typhoid Mary. The article specifically mentions macro viruses. That was a polite way of leaving out the words micro, and soft.

[Randy]

If you use Windows on a Mac via Boot Camp or Parallels, do you need antivirus?

[Mike Nomad]

If you use Windows on a Mac via Boot Camp or Parallels, do you need antivirus?

Yes, for the Windows side/partition. Running a MS operating system on a Mac is only a change in hardware environment (and really, it's only the boot ROM).

[jmc207]

OS X has never had an OS-specific virus/malware/etc.

There are some that come pretty close, like this: http://www.securemac.com/hellrtsd.php. This hole was patched by Apple in June, 2010 with OSX 10.6.4.

Also, though not entirely OS-specific, Mac's are still vulnerable to holes in lots of the add-on apps that most people run such as Java, Adobe Flash and Acrobat. The same apps that let in most Windows malware these days. Example: http://www.securemac.com/boonana-bulletin.php

This video from Sophos shows trojan malware for the Mac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTeSYmQS820

BTW, I'm not a Sophos fanboy, they just seem to have more info about Mac virus stuff at the moment.

[Mike Nomad]

There are some that come pretty close, like this: http://www.securemac.com/hellrtsd.php. This hole was patched by Apple in June, 2010 with OSX 10.6.4.

Also, though not entirely OS-specific, Mac's are still vulnerable to holes in lots of the add-on apps that most people run such as Java, Adobe Flash and Acrobat. The same apps that let in most Windows malware these days. Example: http://www.securemac.com/boonana-bulletin.php

This video from Sophos shows trojan malware for the Mac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTeSYmQS820

BTW, I'm not a Sophos fanboy, they just seem to have more info about Mac virus stuff at the moment.

Heh. Sophos totally rocks. They have always been the best Mac solution around. And there website has always been quite good. Sadly, they no longer handle retail: strictly business/enterprise.

p.s. i have a sophos t-shirt.