A Lot of Problems in Mac OS X Security Compared to Windows Says Security Expert

[Peaches]

A Lot of Problems in Mac OS X Security Compared to Windows Says Security Expert

Attacks on Mac OS X to increase, shifting away from Windows

Attacks on Mac OS X will increase, as the threat landscape will shift away from Windows and focus on platforms that have a smaller market share, believes one of the top security experts from AVAST Software. In a recent interview with Softpedia, Ondrej Vlcek CTO AVAST Software, noted that although Mac OS X continues to be a minor player on the OS market, its continuous growth over the past years is also bound to attract increased attention from attackers.

"I think we will be seeing more and more attacks towards Mac. Of course, it's still a minor platform in terms of market share, currently estimated to be between 6% and 7%, compared to something like 92% or 93% for Windows. For attackers it's much easier to focus on 90+%, but that's changing; the market share is growing all the time," Vlcek said.

More importantly, Vlcek noted that Apple has some issues in the way it deals with the security of Mac OS X. Essentially, AVAST's CTO revealed that Apple is now where Microsoft used to be a decade ago in terms of how the Cupertino-based company tackles vulnerabilities. "And also as the platform is getting more popular it's quite evident that there are a lot problems in the security of the Mac OS in general. What I mean is that Apple's approach towards security vulnerabilities is not very fortunate. It somehow reminds me of Microsoft's style from maybe eight, ten years ago," he added.

Full story here: http://news.softpedi...rt-151382.shtml

[baker7]

A Lot of Problems in Mac OS X Security Compared to Windows Says Security Expert

Attacks on Mac OS X to increase, shifting away from Windows

Attacks on Mac OS X will increase, as the threat landscape will shift away from Windows and focus on platforms that have a smaller market share, believes one of the top security experts from AVAST Software. In a recent interview with Softpedia, Ondrej Vlcek CTO AVAST Software, noted that although Mac OS X continues to be a minor player on the OS market, its continuous growth over the past years is also bound to attract increased attention from attackers.

"I think we will be seeing more and more attacks towards Mac. Of course, it's still a minor platform in terms of market share, currently estimated to be between 6% and 7%, compared to something like 92% or 93% for Windows. For attackers it's much easier to focus on 90+%, but that's changing; the market share is growing all the time," Vlcek said.

More importantly, Vlcek noted that Apple has some issues in the way it deals with the security of Mac OS X. Essentially, AVAST's CTO revealed that Apple is now where Microsoft used to be a decade ago in terms of how the Cupertino-based company tackles vulnerabilities. "And also as the platform is getting more popular it's quite evident that there are a lot problems in the security of the Mac OS in general. What I mean is that Apple's approach towards security vulnerabilities is not very fortunate. It somehow reminds me of Microsoft's style from maybe eight, ten years ago," he added.

Full story here: http://news.softpedi...rt-151382.shtml

I have heard of the stories of how Apple thinks that they are somehow "immune" from security holes, and I have even heard of stories in which, in some early apple ads, they SAY that "they don't get viruses" and that is why they are better - well, Apple removed that ad from the air when it was determined that Macs CAN get viruses. My feeling is that you would NOT want to announce that Macs don't get viruses, because someone is gonna find all the holes and then make viruses, and then they will have to work hard to plug the holes. Case in point, there are AV and antispam software vendors that are coming out with Mac versions for Macs - because they CAN be infected - This is one of the crazy things that Apple did, and they should know better then to drop their PR shields.....geez

Brian

[isteve]

Of course as always there are still no viruses that have made it to the Mac os x, that is 10 years so far. There has been plenty of holes found but nobody has been able to take advantage of these holes. I have seen a few malwares make it but all had to be downloaded and installed by a user with a admin password. I think there is still DNS changer in the wild but only effects macs that haven't been updated in a few years.

[jcl]

Case in point, there are AV and antispam software vendors that are coming out with Mac versions for Macs - because they CAN be infected

AV vendors would release software for rocks if they thought people would pay for it.

[baker7]

jcl:

Agreed - however, it seems that Apple should have realized that if they say that their machines dont get viruses, that some dope or group of dopes is gonna find a way for a virus to attack Macs - It may be true that Macs have less chance of being infected, but anything is possible, because if you can get into a machine with malicious code, it can be infected.....

Brian

Edited August 16, 2010 by baker7