One of Apple ’s chief advantages in the personal computing market has been that its Mac electronic computer have been relatively impervious to viruses and malware , at least when compared to Windows - based personal computer . But that advantage may have been more hard to assert in 2011 — at least , harmonise toa fresh reportfrom certificate firmIntego .
The company’sYear in Mac Security 2011 , released this workweek , claims that 2011“was the most active year for Mac malware since the freeing of Mac OS X. ” Much of the stepped - up activity can be blame on the emergence ofMAC Defendermalware and theFlashbackprogram that masquerade as an Adobe Flash installer . Intego estimate that “ several hundred thousand Mac users ” were affected by the yr ’s “ bumper crop ” of malware .
The MAC Defender malware spread via search locomotive optimization poisoning , using commonly look terms to get salient emplacement in hunt engine results and trick drug user into downloading the faux virus - scanning covering . Apple releaseda surety update in Maythat direct MAC Defender .
In its report , Intego contends that Mac owners may have been lulled into a fake sense of security by the previous paucity of malware problems . “ The bulk of Mac malware … comes as Trojan knight , tricking un - savvy users into installing them , hit them call up they are something they are not , ” the company allege . “ One of the primary lesson for Mac user is that they should think very carefully about when they insert their password and when they instal software . ”
The2010 composition from Integogave the impression that malware stay on a minimum terror on the Mac platform , especially when equate to the personal computer side . But , asked byMacworldto put the malware terror faced by Mac drug user in context , Intego spokesman Peter James would n’t straight the address the topic of whether Apple products retain their surety advantage over Windows microcomputer .
“ It ’s not a question of whether Mac OS X is more strong than Windows , ” James said . “ The issue now is that Mac users are face unfamiliar terror , the kinds of threats that Windows users have deal with for years . The faint link in the chain of protection is the substance abuser , and both on Windows and Mac OS X , malware writer have been successfully overwork this failing through social engineering . ”
But malware was n’t the only challenge during 2011 . Intego ’s write up noted security problems stupefy to Mac owners by exploiter of third - party software program such asSkype , Dropbox , and users of Adobe PDF - meter reading software . The report also affect on problems perplex by hacking and phishing , as well as privacy issue raise by the lift of societal connection like Facebook and Twitter . Still , the Intego written report noted that there were no major vulnerabilities move Mac OS X in 2011 .
Intego ’s write up underscore the growing security department risks face by Mac user — particularly as they download or update their computer ’s software — but made no mention of how those issues might be affected by 2011’slaunch and wage increase of the Mac App Store . While Mac owner are n’t require to use the depot to buy or install software , it has been indicate that one of the new fund ’s chief vantage is security system — computer software that passes through Apple ’s own processes being much less likely to nonplus malicious surety issues .
Even with the store in place since January , though , Intego emphasized the 2011 tender a greater - than - usual issue of threats to Mac data processor . “ It was , ” the business firm said , “ a very eventful twelvemonth . ”
