On 5 April 2006, Apple has released a beta version called “Boot Camp" that enables the Intel-based Macintosh machines to install Windows XP. After the installation and a reboot, the user has the option to either boot Mac OSX or Windows XP. Boot Camp is a part of “Leopard", the codename used for Apple’s next version of Mac OSX, which will have its first preview in August 2006.

Interestingly enough this announcement comes within the same week where Microsoft’s Mike Danseglio, a program manager in the Security Solutions Group, announces that recovery from malware may become impossible. At the InfoSec World Conference he said: "When you are dealing with Rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit". The best action corporates can take is to invest in automated processes to restore systems that have been affected by malware.

The use of Rootkits is on the rise and slowly the viruswriters start to discover and embed Rootkit technology as well to hide their creatures. And this trend will continue to increase. Sooner or later we will see a massive outbreak of a virus that does incorporate Rootkit technology. Discovery of a virus like this on an affected system as well as removal of this virus may indeed be very difficult. And having Windows as the most dominant operating system, the attacks will definitely have that as their main target.

The previously called safe operating systems of Macintosh (we have seen some successful worms this year for Mac OSX) thus may be complemented by a much less secure operating system as Windows XP. This is also a territory that malware authors may use to craft special cross-over viruses, where the virus recognizes the multi-operating system environment on the harddisk and infect (or damages) the operating system that was not booted.

Also noteworthy is that Microsoft is still planning to release its own antivirus and antispyware solutions. Given the statements of Mr. Danseglio you might wonder why they still will release that if it does not solve the problem for their own created less secure environment in the first place.