Windows 7: Doctor Web exposes 550,000 strong Mac botnet

I believe Chromebook is much more secure than most desktop OSes for a couple of reasons:
1) It only runs code in the browser (no native code) and the browser is sandboxed so it's extremely hard for bad guys to design an exploit that will infect the OS.
2) During the boot process, Chrome OS checks every single OS component agains the list of checksums. If checksums differ for a given component, that component is simply discarded and a new one is downloaded on the fly from Google. So even if malware finds its way into the OS, it will simply be discarded during the next boot because it won't match any checksums.

so how did this spread? The App Store?

Flashback the largest Mac malware threat yet, experts say

Source

A Guy

Everyone makes fun of Microsoft and their "Patch Tuesdays", pointing out how many vulnerabilities there seem to be in Windows. Yet this was patched by them months ago.

Pride goeth before a fall. I guess Apple's smuggery came back to bite them.

Looks like OSX has gone from "Mountain Lion" to Kitty Cat.

As a Mac user I've always said the same thing to OSX users as I do Windows users... to make sure to practice and learn better computing and always look into the best methods of protecting yourself and others.

The response I always get on Macrumors.com is how "there's no virus in the wild for Macs" or "a trojan is not a virus" and what not. While technically true, I still argue that people shouldn't merely rely on how they're a small target/demographic or because of how "OSX is based on Unix" argument. I myself use ClamXAV 2 from time to time and I scan all external data devices before they're mounted on my Mac. Even that isn't a foolproof solution, nothing is, but it lowers my risk levels than someone who doesn't use anything merely relies on browser sandboxing and OS level protection.

I countered the argument (to no avail) about how a trojan does fall under the category of malware and OSX does have a hidden Xprotect antimalware engine by Apple and obviously it wasn't enough. Being an equal Windows PC user I stated how PC users have already learned that relying on OS technology alone to protect your machine isn't enough and a responsible user always incorporates multiple layers of protection.