Mac's False Reputation on Minimal Virus Issues Come to an End

Mac has had a false reputation as being untouchable, and now Mac users will be faced with a harsh reality of a world full of malware, and viruses. Mac’s success has shown as an interesting target for Malware programmers, and has seen in statistics the growing number of infections under Mac’s Platform.

Eugene Kaspersky, the CEO of security firm Kaspersky Lab, says Apple is headed for a rough patch, and claimed that when it comes to computer security, Apple’s Mac platform was a decade behind Microsoft’s.

“They will understand very soon that they have the same problems Microsoft had 10 or 12 years ago,” Kaspersky said in an interview. “They will have to make changes in terms of the cycle of updates and so on and will be forced to invest more into their security audits for the software.”

“That’s what Microsoft did in the past after so many incidents like Blaster and the more complicated worms that infected millions of computers in a short time,” he added. “They had to do a lot of work to check the code to find mistakes and vulnerabilities. Now it’s time for Apple [to do the same].”

The statements come on the heels of Flashback, a high-profile piece of Mac malware that is estimated to have infected more than 600,000 Macs at its peak. More recent figures put its current infection somewhere at less than 185,000 machines worldwide. –Symantec (Statistics of how many computers have been infected).

Apple patched the system vulnerability the Flashback attacks were using, and released a removal tool for infected machines. But the company got flack from security experts for not fixing it sooner. Security companies (including Kaspersky) also made Apple look slow to react by offering up their own detection and removal tools ahead of an official fix.

Apple’s also announced Gatekeeper, a technology that will be built into the upcoming release of OS X Mountain Lion, that gives users a way to install only software that’s been signed by registered developers.

Even with those things on tap, Kaspersky argues that Apple’s success will continue to make the Mac a bigger target.

“Cyber criminals have now recognized that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more malware and it’s not just Flashback or Flashfake,” Kaspersky told CBR. “Welcome to Microsoft’s world, Mac. It’s full of malware”

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on Kaspersky’s remarks.

(Information referenced from Cnet Blogger- Josh Lowensohn)

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