Did the Mac malware wake-up call fall on deaf ears?

Last week, in light of the Flashback threat, I offered my assessment of the historic rise in Mac malware and how its prevalence amounts to a wake-up call for Mac users. The gist of my post was that the Mac is a victim of its own success. The bigger the market share, the bigger the target -- and the Mac is not immune to exploits.

I wasn't surprised that my assessment drew a few critics. Here're my synopses of the objections to my post, along with my responses.

No one, Apple included, ever said that OS X was immune
Maybe not "immune," but Apple has run ads over the last decade strongly implying that Macs lack the malware and security problems of Windows. In fact, some of the comments I received reiterated that very notion. Mac users are still resisting the idea that their platform has become a popular attack target and that those attacks are succeeding.

Apple is taking down the botnet -- unlike what Microsoft does
This one is pretty laughable, since it's Apple's first large botnet takedown. The big antimalware companies that tried to contact Apple for assistance early on in the interest of limiting the damage were ignored -- and at one point was attacked by Apple.

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