For several years, Apple (AAPL) has said with pride that its Mac computers and OS are more secure than products from Microsoft (MSFT), especially Windows, which have been a huge target for hackers.
But, the Mac has become more popular and with success comes a measure of visibility. Now hackers appear to love attacking the Mac.
The FT writes that “Over the past two years, we had found one or two pieces of malware targeting Macs,” said Patrik Runald, an F-Secure security researcher. “Since October, we’ve found 100-150 variants.”
That is a lot for Apple to handle. The OS part of the company is not its major business, so any time spent on protecting that realm is not time spent getting out the latest iPhone.
The paper says that most of the damaging software bugs come from a group called the “Zlob gang”. Unfortunately for Apple, they have a reputation for being quite good at what they do.
As for Apple’s bragging rights about having a system which is more secure than Windows? They may be leaving the building.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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