I am now completely confused. I thought I was safe. One of the reasons I bought a Mac to begin with was to avoid all the worry and nonsense surrounding the security of the PC. Apple just released some kind of 'security update' that fixes hundreds of 'flaws'.
Not only that, it said both PCs and Macs are at risk. The anti-virus companies are all predicting a rush on the Mac so they can soon boast 'compatibility' with the PC in terms of virus attacks. Can you tell me what is going on here? Am I really at risk? Can I trust what the anti-virus companies say? Should I buy all the anti-virus software I can? Should I dump everything and try to learn Linux? What about Intel? Macs now run on Intel - will that make it easier to exploit them?
Name and address supplied Sheung Wan
Let us take this a step at a time. How dangerous are viruses (or any other kind of software that can intrude into your machine)? The answer is clear: these can do a great deal of damage and do so all the time.
Now ask yourself, 'What can I not live without (in computer terms, of course)?' 'My applications?' 'My computer?' 'My e-mail?' Your answer should be quite simple - it is your information. That includes your e-mail files, documents, spreadsheet data, database, contact list, drawings or images and videos. Any one of these is often considered irreplaceable.
Instead of thinking in terms of protecting any given machine, you should be thinking about protecting what you cannot replace. If you were a business, your chief financial officer would be thinking in terms of how much it would cost to replace anything that was lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed. You may want to look at your personal life in the same way.