Over at ZDNet Australia, blogger Munir Kotadia points out that Symantec made the prediction 18 months ago in their last Internet Threat Report that by this time Mac OS X would be riddled with spyware, viruses, and security threats. Symantec quietly released their most recent report this week, and after it was released and made absolutely no mention of Mac OS X or any security threats to the operating system, quietly said later that it was wrong about the prediction, and that in the past 18 months there have been no viable, serious security threats to Mac OS X. Mac users can breathe a sigh of relief, but should still and always be on guard to new security threats, and to stand against the kind of security threats of which no operating system is immune-the kind that target the user through social engineering like phishing and password stealing.

Kotadia points out that his query to Symantec to get them to own up to their botched prediction was misconstrued by Apple fanatics at MacDailyNews [ http://macdailynews.com/ ] as dissapointment that Symantec didn’t include Mac OS X in their threat report-which is a sad, sad thing. It’s good news for Mac users, but the fanboy reaction isn’t warranted, and I think Kotadia settles the matter rightly. Still, it’s big news that even as many security analysts predicted that OS X would be the next big target on the horizon, it just hasn’t happened yet.

[ ZDNet Australia :: Symantec’s OS X Spyware Prediction in Flames ]