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McAfee has introduced a security product for the Mac OS X saying that a Mac was as vulnerable as a Windows system. McAfee claims that the vulnerabilities in Macs have increased by 228 percent in the last three years including the 45 found in 2003 and the 143 found last year.
McAfee also said that the discovery of proof-of-concept worm earlier this year indicated that Mac was slowly, but surely becoming vulnerable to such attacks. It also said that a patch released in March had sought to fix 20 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X and hence releasing a security product focused on a Macintosh made sense. Called Mactel, the product has been released keeping in mind the fact that as the popularity of the iPod increases, the Mac user base is set to expand."Historically, Microsoft has been targeted because it has had dominant market share. As there are more Apple users (in the future), more threats will appear,” said Sal Viveros, a security expert at McAfee. "You have a lot more people trying to find vulnerabilities in Windows at the moment, but we believe that as more people put the time into finding vulnerabilities in Apple OSes, they will become just as vulnerable as any other OS."Apple users refuse to acknowledge that their Macs are vulnerable saying that it is Microsoft, which scrambles to release patches, while Apple just tweaks the Macs.However, security firm Secunia says that as time passes, hackers and malware writers will turn to Macs, "Windows still has a much larger user base than Mac, and is therefore much more interesting to find vulnerabilities in," a Secunia representative agreed. "However, the interest in finding vulnerabilities will increase if the popularity of Mac systems grows. We have seen the same increase in discovered vulnerabilities in the Mozilla and Firefox browsers as they increased in popularity."
Secunia also added that Macs are safe as far as blanket attacks are concerned, but are just as vulnerable when it comes to targeted attacks. And it is this feature that McAfee hopes to cash in on.
"Apple appears to be in the earlier stages of malware evolution, where exploits are written and spread as proofs-of-concept to demonstrate authors' technical prowess and to garner notoriety," the company said. "McAfee believes that this incentive, coupled with the easy availability of Mac exploit code on the Internet, will make the Mac an open target for malware."
McAfee also said that the discovery of proof-of-concept worm earlier this year indicated that Mac was slowly, but surely becoming vulnerable to such attacks. It also said that a patch released in March had sought to fix 20 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X and hence releasing a security product focused on a Macintosh made sense. Called Mactel, the product has been released keeping in mind the fact that as the popularity of the iPod increases, the Mac user base is set to expand."Historically, Microsoft has been targeted because it has had dominant market share. As there are more Apple users (in the future), more threats will appear,” said Sal Viveros, a security expert at McAfee. "You have a lot more people trying to find vulnerabilities in Windows at the moment, but we believe that as more people put the time into finding vulnerabilities in Apple OSes, they will become just as vulnerable as any other OS."Apple users refuse to acknowledge that their Macs are vulnerable saying that it is Microsoft, which scrambles to release patches, while Apple just tweaks the Macs.However, security firm Secunia says that as time passes, hackers and malware writers will turn to Macs, "Windows still has a much larger user base than Mac, and is therefore much more interesting to find vulnerabilities in," a Secunia representative agreed. "However, the interest in finding vulnerabilities will increase if the popularity of Mac systems grows. We have seen the same increase in discovered vulnerabilities in the Mozilla and Firefox browsers as they increased in popularity."
Secunia also added that Macs are safe as far as blanket attacks are concerned, but are just as vulnerable when it comes to targeted attacks. And it is this feature that McAfee hopes to cash in on.
"Apple appears to be in the earlier stages of malware evolution, where exploits are written and spread as proofs-of-concept to demonstrate authors' technical prowess and to garner notoriety," the company said. "McAfee believes that this incentive, coupled with the easy availability of Mac exploit code on the Internet, will make the Mac an open target for malware."
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