By Bill Pytlovany
Time to Protect Your Macintosh Computer
Over the years I’ve attended a number of conferences and panels on what originally was called Spyware and Adware. I think we’ve finally settled on using the term Malware for any kind of spyware, virus, Trojan horse or any kind of unwanted computer invasion. I fondly remember my first conference in Washington DC which included panel discussions like “What is Spyware”.
I will also never forget, Jeff Fox, who at the time introduced himself as an editor from Consumer Reports magazine. Jeff insisted the Macintosh was “less hospitable” to spyware. It had nothing to do with the Mac’s 1.5% market share, Jeff implied, Apple created their OS with less vulnerabilities. Ed Skoudis from SANS Institute, countered noting that, “OS10 has had a number of significant security flaws” and that they’re not as widely publicized because they don’t impact as many people.
Since that time Apple has widely increased their visibility. Some estimates put the Macintosh market share above 14%. While many malware authors are targeting the iPhone and iPad, it appears someone has created a Trojan Horse that has spread to over 600,000 Macs including hundreds of machines that report their address coming from Apple headquarters in Cupertino.
If you own a Macintosh computer there’s a chance you’ve been infected even if you run some kind of Anti-Virus software. If you’ve been on a website that offered to update your Flash player, there’s even a better chance you’re one of the 600,000+.
This post is excerpted with Bill’s permission from his blog
