Like a child loosing their ingenuous nature the world of Mac OS users has lost its innocence.

No longer can Mac OS users believe that they live in a world free from malware and viruses the recent and massive wave of Mac Defender, Apple Security center, and any other names it is currently going by has shown the idea that Macs are bullet proof to be painfully false.

Worse still, the fact the the current campaign is being so successful will only serve to encourage the malware authors. I can easily see this summer or fall being a time of hell for any Mac user that does not install anti-malware software on their Macs and soon. Already the current Mac Defender malware has morphed into a new strain that no longer need to ask for the admin password to install. I am sure that we will soon see more pernicious malware if not even the first Mac O/S rootkits.

I take no joy in seeing this happen as it means much grief for many honest people that did nothing to bring it upon themselves. Instead I see it as a dire warning both to the Mac O/S community and other "we're bulletproof" O/S's. The truth is your not. "More bullet proof", maybe, but not "bulletproof".

Security researchers have already demonstrated how recent changes made to make Ubuntu more "user friendly" make it attackable. If developers do not wake up and stop putting user easy above user security we will see "Ubuntu Defender" in short order.

Although annoying to the "average user". All O/S's must start enforcing best security practices. Concepts such as least privilege, privilege separation, sandboxing of applications, strong passwords, Intrusion detection systems and/or intrusion prevention systems, secure (as in read-only password protected) off-line back-ups, etc must not only be made the default they need to be enforced.

Once people understand that this is keeping them safe they will adjust. The measures mentioned above are pro-active and stand a better chance of keeping someone safe then a bolt-on, afterthought, reactive technology such as anti-virus.

We all need to use this moment as a chance re-examine our security stance and our thoughts of "that doesn't happen to us".

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