Macs Are No Longer Immune To Malware / Viruses
The time of malware/virus free Macs has permanently passed us. It seems that most Mac users believe that they are invulnerable to attack; the reasoning is that Macs have such a low market share that there is no reason to target and attack them. While true, it is also a rapidly growing market share that hasn’t gone unnoticed by hackers. The entire IOS is under attack, even iPhones and iPads are not safe either.
Apple has outpaced the growth of the PC industry for 23 straight quarters, making Apple products a very compelling target for hackers. The main vulnerability comes from Java programs, using drive-by-download methods infecting your Mac just by visiting websites, and the new web standard HTML 5. As HTML 5 comes to be malware will actually infect and run in your browser without you knowing, it will most likely be used to attack other computers to cover the hacker’s tracks and make you look like the culprit. This is a scary and sobering fact that should not be overlooked.
Many of the same infections affecting PC computers are moving to the Mac market. Scare-ware as previously mentioned on our site is becoming more prevalent affecting up to 600,000 computers this year, with 98% being Mac computers. One of the biggest threats to the Mac OS has been termed flashback; it poses as the Adobe flash installer program infecting your computer. If you don’t have it already download X project from the Apple App Store, in the newer versions of the Mac OS is a built-in malware scanner. Now is the time to take action, you need-you have to protect your Mac.
Although hackers have realized that Macs are great targets, Apple has begun stepping its game up and is beginning to beat the security drum. The new version and all future versions of Mac OS will have tightened security with a feature called gatekeeper. Gatekeeper is a new protection tool which you need, to help keep you safe, it requires all developers to register with Apple and have their applications verified and signed by Apple before their release to the general public. When installing software on your Mac make sure to use Apple signed software unless you specifically know where the software is coming from. iAntivirus is a great free app which you can find on the App Store developed by Norton a trusted security company, you can and should download it to seamlessly scan your system for any possible threats.
Tags: adware, HTML5, IOS, Ipad, Iphone, Ipod, Mac, Macintosh, Malware, Spyware, trojan virus
August 12th, 2012 at 5:49 pm
I would just like to say that no operating system is totally immune to viruses or malware.
One option that most people don’t know about is Linux. Linux is a free operating system that can run on a PC or Mac, and in the desktop environment is BY FAR the safest OS when it comes to viruses, malware, spyware, and adware.
You can install it side by side Windows on a PC very easily or can even run it entirely off a USB flash stick or CD/DVD with no need to install.
If security is important to you, its well worth checking out Linux. Getting a virus/malware on Linux while in use in the desktop environment is almost unheard of. (Although in the server environment its more possible to get infected)