As for what you should be doing about these attacks, that has been covered by experts than I can address here. Given that you're reading this article, you're already doing the most important thing you can: Staying informed. When a new Mac vulnerability breaks, you'll read about it on and other Macintosh-specific news sites. When this escalates to the level of a circulating exploit, you'll see even more coverage. If and when an exploit becomes common—which has not occurred since the primary method of moving Mac files around was an 800K floppy disk—then you won't be able to avoid hearing about it if you're keeping up on Mac-specific news.

Conversely, you should take any information you get about the Mac from a general news site with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, many tech and computer news websites can fall into the "general" category here more often than they probably should. If you hear about a threat, but it doesn't seem to concern editors at and other reputable Mac sites, then those general sites are likely missing something. When something is genuinely dangerous, you'll hear about it here from Mac-specific writers and editors. You'll also be told how to protect yourself, if such a method exists.

Critics often accuse Apple of touting the imperviousness of its systems, but it’s worth noting that the company acknowledges its imperfections. For example, it still recommends that Mac users . (Users looking for an antivirus package have .) Apple itself , including—in OS X’s most recent incarnation—. Security requires a proactive approach, but Apple helps users out by enabling most of those measures by default.

In the meantime, despite the many varied technical debates to the contrary, you can generally rest easy—unless you enjoy getting lost in the weeds where Mac experts and geeks like to hang out. You'll find many debates among Mac experts about theoretical dangers, and these can sometimes make it into the general media. But that doesn't mean you need to take action every time the hint of a threat pops up in your RSS reader. The vaunted grain of salt and information from reliable sources should see you right.