Last week as we were all getting ready for Christmas, Symnatic announced there was a serious security flaw in 40 of their products. This includes all versions of Norton AV. Symantec calls this a ‘high risk’ vulnerability that could allow a remote user to gain control of a computer, even a Mac, that’s running any of their affected software. The ZDNet Australia article where the problem was reported, poses an important security question:
“As the owner of a Powerbook I am faced with a dilemma. Do I pay AU$118.15 for a flawed ’security’ application that is designed to protect me from threats that do not seem to exist; or do I take sensible precautions like keeping my computer behind a firewall and staying up to date with OS X patches?”
Honestly though, who actually performs virus checks on their Mac… We sure don’t. There doesn’t seem to be a fix for the problem yet.
