A new virus on the Mac?
Over the last few months we have been bombarded with news of malware for the Mac. However, Macintosh users are very skeptical because despite all the noise, we still have to see one of those mythical
Don’t get me wrong, it is just a matter of time before a Trojan causes some damage on our preferred platform. But Trojans are easy to write for any platform, since they do not exploit flaws in the operating system, instead they rely on the end-user to install it voluntarily. What is really hard is to trick the users into installing the malware my making them believe that they are installing something else.
On the other hand, a virus is something totally different. It relies on defects in the OS, common applications (such as a browser or IM product) or removable devices (such as USB memory keys) to propagate by itself to other computers. This is what we haven’t seen so far on the Mac and that we are not likely to see anytime soon because of the way Mac OS X is build. Another important factor is that most Mac OS X users have broadband and quickly install security updates. Finally, Mac OS X is updated on an 18 month basis and if you believe the figures published by Omni Group, it seems that most Mac users update their OS rather quickly compared to their Windows counterparts. This makes it harder for hackers to rely on old security problems.
So, why the fuzz over possible malware on the Mac? The point is that Windows market share in the U.S. is down. Therefore if you sell software for the PC you get worried that you are not going to hit the number analysts are waiting for. The only way to grow is by selling products on the platform that is on the rise. So, Mac users do not need their products? Who cares, they will try to sell them anyway because otherwise they are screwed. This is specially true now that they will have to compete with Microsoft security products (if that sounded like an oxymoron to you, don’t worry, you are not alone) on Windows. These guys are fighting for their lives, so do not expect them to give up easily.