It does not do a whole lot right now, but we will see a different type of virus down the road because of this. This is forward-looking, but it lets people know there will be attacks.

They're gaining increased interest from the virus (writing) community. And as these devices become more pervasive, they become a bigger target.

Given recent activity, McAfee AVERT Labs forecasts that attackers may attempt to test the viability of exploiting this vulnerability en masse, by producing a reconnaissance Trojan to identify a vulnerable user base. Exploit source code with a payload has been published. Now, the message is 'welcome to zero-day vulnerability land for many Mac OS X users' Only, Mac OS X users are less prepared, less aware and mitigation tools are less evolved.

Many think that the Macintosh operating system is impervious to viruses or these kind of security threats. It is not that they are impervious; they are targeted less.

Many people thought the Mac was invulnerable. That's never been true, but the low number of viruses and attack attempts has made it feel true.

You talk to a Windows user about the dangers of clicking on the wrong attachments, and they know you're talking about a virus. But there's something about the Mac community.... They don't want to admit when something bad is threatening them.