For Safe Porn Viewing, Apple Recommends QuickTime 7

Conventional wisdom and Apple spin have long held Macs to be more reliable and more secure than PCs. But after reports of installation bugs, along with data loss and other problems in Mac OS X Leopard, some are beginning to ask: how much more reliable? How much more secure? Especially now that Apple has confirmed that OSX.RSPlug.A, a malicious new Trojan found on several pornography Web sites, can indeed compromise Macs running Mac OS X.

“We’ve been made aware that a small number of Web sites attempt to trick Mac OS X users to install malicious software on their Macs,” said Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox. “Apple has a great track record for keeping Mac OS X users secure, and as always, we encourage people to install software only from trusted sources.”

And be sure to stay away from porn sites that require you to install software to view them.

So is OSX.RSPlug.A an anomaly or a harbinger of things to come? Security researcher Gadi Evron says it’s the latter. “Apple’s day has finally come, and Apple users are going to get hit hard,” Evron told Wired. “OS X is the new Windows 98. … It’s Mac season. The next two years will be interesting.”