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.
2) The installer is attached to pirated installers for other commerical products. In other words, only those who are attempting to install stolen software will be infected.
That means the the smug Mac users who believe in paying content producers for their work are just fine.
:O(
It's not a matter of being smug. It just a matter of one system allowing infection if you click on the wrong link, and one system not. But of course I may be wrong, Windows is just as securely designed as OS X. and that Mac malware apocalypse really is coming. Any minute now...
yuk yuk yuk :D
On another note, no OS is 100% secure. Bound to happen. Nothing to see here folks.
I think the only news here is that Symantec is trying to panic Mac users into buying their software.
Came for the truth, stayed for the snark.
Or should it "Dumbasses swallow cat turds. Unrelated - Cyanide still bad for you."
I should be a tech journalist!
See the following truths
1> Yes, the Mac OS has been attacked before
2> Microsoft's OS has been and is attacked much more frequently.
3> Any OS is vulnerable
4> People who unleash malicious software are either douche bags or deliberate criminals.
5> Don't put it past a corporation to create a threat so that they can profit.
6> Your OS does not define you as a person, get over it.
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?
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?)
And does why the heck this happens when I'm buying my first Apple?