Apple is crowing about how its iTunes App Store is about to hit its one billionth download today, but it has also quietly reached another milestone earlier this year: its first Trojan horse program.
Until recently, the big target always was Microsoft Windows, and Apple computers were protected by "relative obscurity," [Kevin Haley, a director of security response at Symantec] said.
But blogs are buzzing this week about what two Symantec researchers have called the first harmful computer program to strike specifically at Mac.
This Trojan horse program, dubbed the "iBotnet," has infected only a few thousand Mac machines, but it represents a step in the evolution of malicious computer software, Haley said.
The iBotnet is a sign that harmful programs are moving toward Mac, said Paul Henry, a forensics and security analyst at Lumension Security in Arizona.
And does why the heck this happens when I'm buying my first Apple?
On the one hand, yeah, there may be an explosion down the road. On the other hand, you can generally just not worry about it right now. Also, you get to be a bit smug at your neighbors. (Guess which option I chose?)
Geez, people are still buying into this old canard, eh? Listen, people... OS X is genuinely SAFER, not more secure, than Windows+IE. The statement above simply could not be less true. OS X -- as wonderful an OS as it is -- includes practically zero protection against malware. It's not designed with malware defense in mind, nor does it have anti-malware features built into it. Why? Because it doesn't need it. Read this next sentence twice, please: There are not enough Mac users in the world to ensure viable paths through which malware can propagate. It's as simple as that.
If you have sex with your wife without a condom, you are less secure than a guy who bangs fifty women with a condom, because you have not taken any protective measures and he has. But you are SAFER than the other guy because of conditions that have nothing to do with your level of security. He is potentially being exposed to assorted diseases, whereas you are under no such threat. Unless your wife is screwing around, you're safe, and no security measures are required.
Of course if your wife gets really popular all of a sudden, you may be in trouble. Remember that when encouraging your friends to buy Macs. If Apple ever manage to achieve anything close to 30% market share, and those propagation paths start looking more and more practical, it's going to be a rude awakening.
Can we move on now?