Posted on 04/24/2012 6:55:44 AM PDT by for-q-clinton
In a challenge to the prevailing belief that Apple computers are immune to the sort of cyberattacks that plague WIndows-based machines, research firm Sophos has released a study claiming that one in five Macs have malware.
The report, released on Tuesday, is based on a “100,000-strong snapshot” of the millions of Macs that downloaded Sophos’s free Mac antivirus software. The study found that 20% of Macs were carrying one or more instances of Windows malware.
Such malware doesn’t cause symptoms unless the Mac owners run Windows on their machines, but it can be spread to others.
However, this doesn’t appear to be solely a Windows-based problem. The report also found that 2.7% of Macs were infected with Mac OS malware. The majority of such Mac OS malware is composed of fake antivirus attacks, like the recent Flashback botnet. Mac owners can contract such malware by downloading email attachments, visiting rogue websites and unknowingly installing it via their USB drive. The chart below provides a breakdown of the types of Mac OS malware:
To avoid downloading such malware, Sophos recommends running an antivirus program and keeping it up to date, exercising caution about which links you click on, keep software patches current and keeping an eye out for email-based scams.
So you’re saying you’re too stupid to understand that 2.7% is > 0.4%?
Why would they read the article it would defeat their purpose of ranting on and on like they have about macs and viruses.Just read it not a single one of them read the article or if they did it went over their heads....
Did you read the article? It says 2.7% are infected with OSX malware.
And someone else posted on this thread where windows 7 is only infected at 0.4% rate.
Last I checked 2.7% > 0.4%.
If anything, I’m too stupid for replying to your trolls.
You have no other purpose here than stirring up crap, and I keep helping. Shame on me for that.
Most of us have long been told that the only reason for a Mac to us AV was out of kindness to MSFT.
Truthfully, my kindness was lacking. It is a two-way street after all. I mean rather than making me deal with AV subscriptions why don't they just GET A MAC!!
So posting malware warnings is stirring up crap? I guess you’d rather people get the malware than be aware of it?
Is it also stirring up crap when people post about windows XP malware?
Ok I’ll let you get the last word in...you seem to need that satisfaction.
You’ve added 0 to this thread except to come in here and call names.
When you can’t attack the message attack the messenger—right out of the democrat playbook.
Lets be HONEST here... Yes, I know that is difficult for some:
How many of those supposedly “1 in 5” macs are actually “INFECTED” vs. those who happen to have some file sitting in an email that some infected Windows user sent (intentionally or accidentally or unknowingly) to them. That file carries a worm/virus/trojan that has not actually infected that Mac... nor will/can it unless executed in a Windows environment.
If that Mac user never forwards that file/email to someone else - it isn’t an issue.
As far as the whole thumb drive or other file sharing methods being a danger to others - only if the Mac users were using the Windows environment and transferring files from within that environment. But notice the important part of that - WINDOWS environment.
So your statement that “Mac users may want to consider running Windows 7 to secure their machines.” then makes no sense - as it is the very Windows environment that is at issue and the vector of infection and/or distribution of those nasties.
I was referring to the 2.7% OSX malware rate. When compared to the windows 7 malware rate (as stated in one of the links above) is only 0.4%.
So win 7 has less malware attached than OSX does. Which is quite remarkable if you consider that Win7 has a much larger target space for the malware creators to target.
Rather deceptive graphic. It says “Top Mac OSX malware found on Mac computers”...
Sophos 7-day snapshot of 100K Macs... What it appears to try to say is that 100% of Macs have malware... and the chart is breaking that down by the kind of malware. Yet it gives no information about where or how this “snapshot” was obtained... is it a blind guess in the dark? What 100K machines? Are they machines that are running the latest version of OSX with all updates? Or are these machines running older versions of the OS (that likely don’t have any patches)? Also - it doesn’t say infected, which would imply code that is active.
As I seriously doubt that Sophos has a Mac farm with 100K machines to test... where do they get this information? Are there 100K Macs with Sophos software installed?
I am looking for empirical data. Not guesses based on rumors and he-said, she-said or big claims by a company that has LOTS to gain by reporting such “findings”.
But not the 1 in 5 the misleading headline implies. IOW, the vast majority of malware on Macs is Windows malware. And this makes you feel good? For a long time, the main reason to run AV on a Mac was to be a good neighbor, filtering out Windows malware from reaching your Windows friends. This appears to still be the case.
No. You're comparing malware that's 'present' and malware that's 'infecting.' The 2.7% for Macs specifically says it's all malware that's present. That means it includes malware that hasn't infected the computer. The 0.4% for Windows 7 specifically says it's malware that's infected the computer.
Second, the studies appear to take into account two different sets of computers within the operating systems. For Windows 7, Microsoft looked at computers pulled from the full set of all Windows 7 computers (and found that the rate of infection was increasing at 30% per year). For OS X, Sophos (not Apple) looked at only the subset of those Macs running Sophos.
That's a curious subset, because installing Sophos disables part of the OS X that prevents certain malware from downloading. Sophos permits the download and then identifies the file as malware. The subset of OS X computers running Sophos should show a higher percentage of malware present than the set of all OS X computers. And it's malware present, not infections. Microsoft is noting infections in the entire set of Windows 7 computers.
The two studies compare apples and oranges - malware present versus malware infections, and from a select subset of computers running the operating system versus all computers running the operating system.
The studies don't provide the data to make a comparative analysis.
I didn’t write the headline, besides we should know by now the headlines are often very misleading. That’s being a conservative 101 type thing.
But who said it makes me feel good? The truth is that these macs are probably running XP a decade old OS. If they ran win7 they’d be a lot better off. Plus for OSX malware to not exist where does it get the 2.7% to download from?
Exactly... and thank you Scoutmaster.
For-q-clinton insists on comparing all versions of Apple Mac OSX from OSX.1 through OSX.7.4—the last two of which, OSX.6 Snow Leopard and OSX.7 Lion, are incapable of being infected with the Trojans that are on his chart— patched and un-patched, with a SINGLE version of Microsoft Windows, Windows 7.
He IGNORES the fact that according to StatCounter's Global statistics (the most accurate known) as of March 2012, only 38.41% of computer users were utilizing Windows7 as on operating system... while 52.24% were still using either Windows XP (40.82%) or Windows Vista (11.42%)! 6.76% of the world's users had adopted OSX in one of it's seven versions... and 1.07% had adopted iOS! The rest of the world (1.52%) is using UNIX, Linux, or some other more obscure OS.
If we want to see just the statistics for the US:
Windows 7: 38.1%
Windows XP: 26.67%
Windows Vista: 16.63%
Mac OSX (various versions): 14.81%
Apple iOS: 2.05%
All others (UNIX, Linux, etc.): 1.83%
The combined Windows XP and Vista at 53.3% still exceeds still exceeds adoption of Windows7's 38.1% . . . and Microsoft's US Windows' market share has been dropping every quarter for years and the combined US installed base of Windows for XP, Vista, and 7, at the end of March was down to 81.4%! That may explain the flurry of FUD we have been subjected to for the last two weeks...
Apple just blew away the Wall Street ANAL-ysts projections this afternoon on every one of their predictions with the 1Q financial reports... the ones filled with FUD about low Mac Sales, low iPad sales, low iPhone sales, low revenues, low profits... and every one was far higher than the analysts were predicting. . . by millions of sales and BILLIONS of dollars! Apple stock is way up in after-hours trading after being forced down by unrelenting, false to fact FUD over the past two to three weeks intentionally comparing unlike quarters, presenting false data, and promulgating lies deliberately to manipulate the price of Apple stock! Where is the FTC investigation when BILLIONS of investor dollars were destroyed by these shenanigans by manipulators, FUD spreaders, and so-called analysts playing on the fears of small investors for the benefit of the big players?
I am thrilled to be able to spread a virus that some windows dufus sent me, without risking any damage to my own system. If only those windows guys ran virus software sigh......You guys must have some stake in Virus software, else why all the concern for all us idiots that are stupid enough to buy those overpriced pieces of junk that Apple foists off on the public?
for-q-clinton, the OSX/FakeAV is the Mac Defender scare ware that was sent out last year... a dead issue. It was also sent out as an email... under the false impression from it’s authors that, like Windows, it would be auto-run from the Apple Mail app. It could not. Hell, I have some of those emails on my computers... they are laughable. If I click on them, the System warns me they are a Trojan. That accounts for 17.8% of the “found” malware. Enough said.
You mean like you lump windows XP with win7?
The "1 in 5" figure is about WINDOWS MALWARE -- can't you even read???
The percentage of Macs with actual Mac malware is still extremely small.
Troll. And a fool.
Yeah, but you're perfectly thrilled to carry that crap to FreeRepublic and post it, while you hawk Windows and trash Apple.
Your excuse is bullshit. You're just trolling. Admit it, troll.
Do you post leftist articles from DU, too? Seems it would be in character...
By the way, this comment was posted from my Windows 7-64 desktop, troll.
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