Apple showers love on Mac malware protection

For only the second time in 19 months, Apple has updated the signatures used to protect Mac users against malware attacks. An update released Monday for Mac OS X 10.6, aka, Snow Leopard, adds detection for a trojan known as OSX.OpinionSpy. The malware comes bundled with Mac screensavers and applications available on various …

[Anonymous Coward]

What the . . .

What language is that alert graphic in?

[Richard Pennington 1]

What language ...?

Do you want to ask amanfrommars, or shall I?

[JarekG]

RE: What the

It's Apple, it's new and it's great...

[Anonymous Coward]

re: What language is that alert graphic in?

Franglais

[Eponymous Howard]

eh?

"Mac security experts say the number of known malware applications that target OS X is probably in the hundreds."

Is there a school of discourse where this sentence even remotely makes sense?

Is it known? Or is it probable?

[Anonymous Coward]

re: Is it known? Or is it probable?

The apps are known (i.e. they have been reported) and there are probably hundreds of them (but the experts haven't been keeping track of them all) - it's really not so hard, is it?

[Eponymous Howard]

eh?

So experts haven't been keeping track of them, but they are known to be there. Probably.

Riiiiight.

[foo_bar_baz]

@Howard: Yes there is, it's called ordinary language and common logic

Since we've moved to the nitpicking realm, I'd say "known" does not mean "universally known". A British Froobology expert could say "I have discovered 113 Froobies and my guess is that Cuban and Chinese know of similar quantities, so the number of known Froobies is probably in the hundreds." He can't know if the Cubans and Chinese have discovered as many, or whether they are disctinct from his. He does know Cubans and Chinese are good at Froobology but they just don't share their findings.

I see what you're saying, too many wishy-washies in the sentence, and in the area of malware "known" does in practice equate with "universally known".

[Eponymous Howard]

That's not common logic...

...it is speculation. (In your example, we must first establish that Froobies are not native to Britain).

It does not even enter the realm of inference, but is pure implication. Or the "mud sticks" fallacy, if you prefer.

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

Puh-fect bait!

What's not to like? Apple aknowledging the malware threat, but only 4 signatures. The trolling potential is almost limitless.

Let's watch.

[Anonymous Coward]

So...

Install ClamXAV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Known or probable... er...

The number of known malware applications is... er... not mentioned

The number of probable malware is... er... a wild guess

The number of known probables is exactly the the same as the known unknowns which is inversely proportional to the unknown unknowns.

I'll get the coat with the known amount of sleeves. I can find the door myself.

[Baskitcaise]

Known or probable... er...

"I'll get the coat with the known amount of sleeves. I can probably find the door myself"

There fixed that for you.

KTHXBIE!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why you DON'T rely on Apple...

... And use someone like Intego (paid) or Sophos (free) for Mac.

[justkyle]

But don't real geeks

compile clamav from source?

[Headstar]

"The protection, which many are calling Xprotect..."

These guys' lawyers may have something to say about using that term:

http://www.milestonesys.com/products/ip_video_software