Bits from Bill

Technology thoughts leaking from the brain of "Bill Pytlovany"

Friday, February 17, 2006

Mac Malware

I recently wrote about the ASC AntiSpyware conference held in Washington DC. One of the items I didn't mention was an editor from Consumer Reports who wanted to let everyone know how great the Apple Mac was. While he had his soapbox, he wanted everyone to know they were wrong. The Macintosh was malware free because it was a better system and not because it only made up 1.5% of the market.

Well, all the blogs were buzzing today with stories of a new malware threat to Macs. Many sites couldn't decide if it was a virus, a trojan or a worm. CNet just called it Malware

Meanwhile, ZNDet reports Apple Computer may be invoking the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to stop the dissemination of methods allowing Mac OS X to run on x86 based chips from Intel or Advanced Micro Devices

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

this comment comes well after this was written but...

it is October 1, 2006 and all the warnings, articles and hullabaloo surrounding the "Mac Malware" frenzy from earlier this year has come to naught. there has been no reported Macintosh specific attacks via malware.
yes, there have been vulnerabilities, but no self-propagating malware and mind you there is a big difference between the two.

will someone eventually figure out how to write self-propagating malware for Mac that does not rely on social engineering? probably. but the Unix based Mac OS has been in use for 5 years and as yet has not has one outbreak or attack in that time. that pretty much speaks for itself. and should anyone argue the "Security through Obscurity" angle please bear in mind this... with all the press Apple Computer has been receiving lately, especially regarding Mac OS X security, it would make a juicy target for a would be hacker. still, no malware. why? Mac OS X isn't just more secure because fewer people it. it's just much harder to crack.

9:47 PM  

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