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This malware would appear to know Macs.

The malware is written for OS X, but still requires a user to intentionally install it.

I mean, I could write a program in about 5 minutes that starts deleting files anywhere on a machine, for pretty much any OS you can name. The trick would be in getting someone to install it and let it run.

Any OS has a certain percentage of users that are fool enough to install viruses that most of us would not. My point was that, now that Macs are more common and their market share is growing, there may be more viruses on the horizon that will affect OS X in the future. That would really shake the confidence of all those users that bought macs because they thought they couldn’t get viruses.
Yes, I’m a PC user and always have been. I was a desktop tech in a previous life and I worked on Macs when we got a call ticket. I was the only one who would because all the other techs didn’t like dealing with the condescending and impatient users that had them.

I mean, I could write a program in about 5 minutes that starts deleting files anywhere on a machine, for pretty much any OS you can name.

So true. This ZDnet article is just the usual link-bait to grab eyeballs. One could almost imagine, without too much exaggeration, having Ed Bott gin up an article about OS X containing a built-in "Self destruct" capability. After all, the boot disk contains the Disk Utility app, and with a few clicks a user can (cue dramatic music) erase the entire hard drive!

The malware is written for OS X, but still requires a user to intentionally install it.

Exactly. This software pretends to be beneficial. It requires the user of the computer to be careless enough to enter the administrator password when prompted. Anyone that careless deserves what they get. It's like a total stranger showing up at the front door and dressed up as a policeman. He says that he has a report that someone has broken into your home. "Please let me in so I can check all of your room." Anyone home owner careless enough to let this fake policemen into the house deserves to be robbed.

True. In fact it would take about 10 seconds to write a one-line shell script that would erase all the files on any hard drive on a Unix-based system. All you need is a computer user careless enough to enter the administrator password.