Todd Stewart, who works for Virus Slayer Symantec, sets the record straight. As of today, there are no file-infecting viruses yet affecting machines running on the Mac OS X. He clarifies that the first-ever reported virus for the Mac, the OSX.Leap.A, is not a virus but a worm. What's the difference? A virus infects files within a single computer, worms are programmed to spread from one computer to another. Got that?

So as far as viruses are concerned, Mac users can still look down on PC users. But when it comes to worms, trojan horses and rootkits, Apple People and PC people could be paddling in the same boat soon. Symantec has already a high severity advisory for all versions of Mac OS X 10.4.x prior to 10.4.7. Later, they issued a Category 1 threat advisory for OSX.Exploit.Launchd, a proof of concept trojan code released publicly.

While Mac OS X security threats are still highly manageable, Stewart reminds everyone that "no operating system is without imperfections, and no computer connected to the Internet will ever be 100% immune from attack." In fact, he says it is possible that the first real Mac virus could be just five minutes away. Apple Computer agrees. While the company says the Mac offers better protection from viruses than a PC,  "itÂ?s never a bad idea to run extra virus and security software."