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.
Now if this was a windows post, you know one of the first responses would be to get a Mac and be safe. Looks like Mac users may want to consider running Windows 7 to secure their machines.
Such malware doesn’t cause symptoms unless the Mac owners run Windows on their machines, but it can be spread to others.
but
but
but
Mac’s are immune.
We have thousands of posts on FR during the last decade that say so.
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“Looks like Mac users may want to consider running Windows 7 to secure their machines.”
Huh? The article says that most of this malware is Windows malware that apparently only runs if the user runs Windows on their Mac. What did I miss?
Windows programs came with my Mac.
It’s been bullet proof so far.
The article fails to support the headlne — 1 in 5 Mac users who bothered to download this company’s AV kit had malware, and only if they were running Windows on their Mac.
But since headlines about Mac malware draw eyes, who cares if the article body paints a completely different picture than the hyped-up lead?
Actually, it wasn’t all that interesting, and I run Mac, Linux, and Windows machines. If you read the article closely, you surely noticed only 2.7% of Macs were infected with Mac OS malware. That seems pretty low to me. The 1 in 5 figure was for Macs with Windows software, i.e. Boot Camp. Based on my experiences, Mac OS is by far a better operating system as far as malware. That’s not saying Windows and Linux don’t have their own advantages. They do.
So is article this saying that Macs are the host carriers for viruses and malware?
Think about it, 1 in 5 macs have the stuff and it doesn’t affect them. However, you copy files from a mac to a flash drive and give it to a user with a PC and they could get infected with something. Of course, then the Mac user throws up their arms and says, “not my problem, I’m on a Mac.” I’m scared to accept files from Mac users now.
But we were told Macs can’t get malware.
With such a small footprint this is just the beginning. I’ve said all along Macs enjoyed good security with a small user base (relative). However, now that it’s getting a larger user base we’ll see more and more attacks. And recent issues show that Apple isn’t ready to handle it.
So, if a Mac has malware written for Windows, then the only threat is if if the Mac User boots his Mac up into Windows. But, then this is still rather unbelieveable - because Windows has several good, FREE virus/trojan/worm/malware programs that are freely available.
So, without regard to what OS you are running - a 'smart' user is going to have something to screen his data from the malware that is freely available on the internet. I think the dsys of "security by obscurity" are officially over.
The article doesn’t mention which version of Windows they are running. My bet it’s an old copy of windows xp that is getting the malware. Windows 7 is just as safe if not safer than OSX.
Please read the article.
Macs ARE not affected, as this is Windows Malware. The only way they could be affected, is if the Mac were to be a dual-boot machine, and were to boot Windows.
Or, think of it this way ... if your Windows machine had a Mac virus on it; would you care? If it did, it wouldn’t do anything to you, unless you were to boot into an Apple OS.
And, some these malware prorams are approximately 5 years old. If you had an updated copy of Windows, they likely wouldn’t do anything bad anyway - as the patched Windows program would find and eliminate them.
LOL. So much for the hype about Macs being above having malware issues.
The experts in malware detection and removal would beg to differ.
Please read the article.
Macs ARE affected: “The report also found that 2.7% of Macs were infected with Mac OS malware”
Exactly...just think how many people have malware and don’t even know it because they thought their Mac was malware proof.
Please read the article.
A Mac with Windows malware is not affected. Just like a Windows machine with Apple malware is not affected.
These were files downloaded from the internet, with WINDOWS malware present. Unless the Mac user opted to boot into an old, unpatched version of Windows, without any anti-malware programs installed (dubious case), he wouldn’t be affected at all.
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