Posted by The Blogging Desk on Thu, Jul 28, 2011
PCMAG:
Long gone are the days when Apple lovers could take pride in their virus-free Macs while snickering at PC owners' constant worries about security. Apple's brand new Mac OS X Lion operating system is already acquiring an unhealthy list of reported vulnerabilities less than a week after its official release.
Some Lion vulnerabilities are carry-overs from Snow Leopard, like the "Mac Defender" class of scareware that first surfaced in May. Apple's recent software update to prep Macs running Snow Leopard for Lion installation includes identification and removal of known variants of the malware.
Like Mac Defender, another newly identified OS X threat called the Olyx backdoor appears to be a variant of Microsoft Windows-targeting malware that's simply been tweaked to go after Macs.
I, for one, and stunned that PC Magazine uses their space to alert their readers to the fact that Mac hardware may be succeptable to malware. Let's ignore the fact that news of the threat to Macs comes from TechNet and continue on.
Obviously, it's entirely possible that Macs will be just as malware-heavy as PCs. That day may even be now. The fact is there just aren't nearly enough Mac users as there are PC users. Right now, there is no reason for malware creators to attack a small userbase, but if it continues it's growth, you better believe things could get hairy.
However, I'm always second guessing the places where claims of new malware come from. More than likely it's from a group that gets funding from Norton or somewhere else. Obviously these people want you to know about the risks and then buy their software. Obviously Microsoft wants you to know about the risks coming to Mac's new OS.
The fact is there will always be risks, and you should always be prepared. That's not hype, that's truth. Trigon can help you with potential malware issues.
