“Security vendor Symantec is warning that Apple’s OS X operating system is increasingly becoming a target for hackers and malware authors,” Munir Kotadia reports for ZDNet Australia. “In its seventh bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec said over the past year, security researchers had discovered at least 37 serious vulnerabilities in the Mac OS X system. According to Symantec, as Apple increases its market share–with new low cost products such as the Mac mini–its userbase is likely to come under increasing attack.”
“‘Contrary to popular belief, the Macintosh operating system has not always been a safe haven from malicious code,’ Symantec said. ‘Out of the public eye for some time, it is now clear that the Mac OS is increasingly becoming a target for the malicious activity that is more commonly associated with Microsoft and various Unix-based operating systems,’ the report said,” Kotadia reports. “Trend Micro senior systems engineer Adam Biviano said all complex operating systems had security flaws and the more popular the platform, the more likely it would be attacked. ‘You don’t see Macintosh viruses in mass outbreaks but you do see them in the labs as proof of concepts. There aren’t any outbreaks because there are simply are not enough [Macs] out there. For a virus to be successful it needs a combination of an exploit and a large target audience,’ said Biviano, who nominated the mobile phone market as an example of malware writers targeting the most popular platform, not Microsoft’s platform. ‘Look at where mobile viruses are going and they are not targeting Microsoft – they are targeting the market leader, which is Symbian,’ he said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Do you have to be logged in as root or enter your user password to give viruses permission to spread with Symbian OS mobile phones? And, please, there are simply too many security issues with Windows and too few with Mac OS X for any sane, intelligent person to say that Mac OS X is just secure due to its relative obscurity. There are 10 million Max OS X users, but zero viruses affecting users. Don’t worry about the exact numbers, we’ll use round numbers here just for argument’s sake: if 5% of computer users use Mac OS X and 95% use Windows, wouldn’t 5% of the viruses be for Mac OS X and 95% for Windows if popularity was the main reason for virus outbreaks? Instead, 0.00% of the viruses are for Mac OS X and 100% for Windows. Why? Some people still need to face facts: Mac OS X is simply more secure than Windows by design. Use little dabs of logic here and there, once and awhile, it usually helps clear away the FUD. In related news, umbrella maker Totes announced that with the recent increase in home building, there is an increased possibility of indoor rain.
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Symantec wants your business so they report things like this to try and scare people with it. It’s a bunch of baloney unless you give them your admin password. Then your screwed! But it’s doubtful.
Oh the nostalgia of a neo-con/liberal flame war. Those were the days…
It is kind of a good sign that they are starting to talk about the Mac as becoming more mainstream even if it is in FUD tactics.
I liked the part where they said “the Mac OS is increasingly becoming a target for the malicious activity that is more commonly associated with Microsoft and various Unix-based operating systems,” Neat trick, making it seem that Unix-based operating systems are as insecure as Microsoft. For some reason I don’t recall any headlines in the last couple of years about widespread virus damage being associated with any system except Microsoft – but maybe that is just me.
Someday there will probably be a malicious viruses in the wild again for the Mac but I think they will be very few and far between and because of the inherent security will be much more limited in effect.
We can just keep on using Virex. I’m done with Symantec. Sounds more like a secret buyout by that Secundia company that keeps tossing out the hysterics about proof of concept vulnerabilities.
That darned subscription model just won’t go away. I don’t want to keep paying for the same thing over and over. Windows users may be accustomed to it, but the Mac world isn’t.
I love my Magic Word: “hope” as the OS X light shines across the world.
I want to share the good news with this wonderful group: another Mac convert in the office (that makes 4 of us in an office of 350.) His Windows computer was made completely useless by a pernicious trojan spyware. He got fed up, drove to CompUSA in Baton Rouge about 60 miles from here, and purchased an iMac. I can’t wait for his cheers of joy as he finds the many benefits and pleasures of Mac computing. I expect there will be a moment or two of frustration as he has to unlearn the MS way of doing things, but when he sees the equivalent way, his brain, and his attitude, will adjust.
Magic Word “greater” as in “He is about to experience a greater plane of computer existence.”
Would you go to an unknown mechanic and ask him to fix anything he finds wrong in your car?
Why trust ANY virus software company?
They are greater experts at creating money from viruses rather than knowing about the Mac and the best interest of Apple’s customers.
What’s the point of all these fighter planes anyway?
“Quick, scramble the F-22s. The Chinese are com…..”<sound of hydrogen bombs going off, taking airbases, cities, Macaday, MCCFR, and the majority of humans on the planet, be it conservative or liberals, in one nice easy succession of blasts>.
Until someone comes up with something better, there’s really only one defensive weapon worth having.
Just don’t run the launch systems on Windows.
One keyboard and mouse to input your data?
$50
One decent monitor to view your work?
$200
A beautifully designed and virus-secure Mac mini computer running the OS X operating system?
Priceless.
If these alleged proof-of-concepts really exist, it makes you wonder in who’s lab they reside? MS? Symantec? Who would have the most to gain if a virus were to strike OS X? Who has motive?
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These “security warnings” from *security companies* are such a farce… OF COURSE they want people to think that there’s a “security threat”… if people don’t think this way nobody will buy their software!
–mAc
Dave H:
Bear in mind I’m not the one who’s espousing the $400 billion defence budget, unlike Macaday/Arnold.
And that’s why I think we should stop spending money on Typhoon and get a plane thats more in keeping with being a minor power. I’d rather the savings got spent on things like education and a decent health service (I live in Guildford and our local hospital somehow manages to set new lows in performance every year).
In whose lab:
One of my friends still believes that the tyre companies scatters nails on the ground to puncture our tyres. He then adapted his theory by saying that on one side of a door in Symantec, there’s the virus team and on the other side, there’s the NAV team. A bit ying/yang, a bit conspiracy theory. Who knows?
Hmm? If virus activity is directly proportional to marketshare…. where were all the viruses when the Mac had much bigger marketshare??
Symantec….
the company that makes some of the worst software the mac has ever seen is suddenly a security expert
does this mean that their software actual works now instead of creating more problems for the user??
advocate: I’ll second your recomendation not to install Symantec products. I’ve seen more problems caused by it than it supposedly fixes. Search Google groups first before buying.
As for marketshare equals prevelence of viruses that is just so much bull. Blackice Firewall has maybe 50,000 users yet that didn’t stop them for writting a virus that exploits it. By all measures, Blackice users should have been safe if lack of users equals security.
ClamXav is a decent free virus checker. Use it until the first viruses are found, then make the decision whether to switch to a commercial product.
Symantec makes the worst antivirus programs in the world bar none
and they want the mac users to buy there utter crap to.
I find that insulting.
Bush wants the Americans to feel threatened.
Symantec wants mac users to feel the same way.
go figure.
When I started getting serious about switching a couple of years back, 4% was the number being bandied round as Apple’s marketshare.
Now 2% is the claim.
At 4% there were no Mac viruses, so why should there be any if Apple returns to 4%??
My prediction: If Apple double their marketshare, viruses will increase accordingly – i.e. double.
Coz two times zero = zero! 😀
you guys just don’t get it. given finite time and resources a hacker is motivated to get the most bang for the buck. no incentive for a motivated hacker to target one of the 37 serious vulnerabiliies on os x because there are not enough hosts to efficiently propogate the exploit code.
You Mac people are black turtle-neck wearing, latte sipping, one-eyed freaks.
Hey Mac Da Knife,
Go troll somewhere else you man-goo sucking skin-flutist.
Or do you prefer to called a skin-flautist??
Mac Da Knife:
Actually, I prefer cappucino myself with the odd doppio espresso to clear the cobwebs.
But other than that, what’s your point?
A “Target” does not mean that there are viruses. All that it means is hackers might be “Trying” to make a virus.
And if Mac OS X is a “Target”, then what is Windows?
A 2,000 lb. Industrial magnet?