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May 19, 2011
The malware authors are beginning to adapt to changing habits of PC users. There’s nothing inherently safer about alternative browsers—(Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox) or even alternative operating systems.
The slow decline of the Windows monopoly and the steady rise of alternative platforms including Google Chrome and the OS X platform on Apple Macs is resulting in increasing malware run by criminals using crime ware kits to make money. For instance, the number of reports of Mac malware found in the wild are increasing.
One of these is MAC Defender a fake antivirus programme that targets mac users. It changes its name to MacSecurity and MacProtector and is now served to Mac users from a page that resembles the Mac OS X Finder. This is a basic social engineering attack customized for the Mac OS X.
Instructions on how to remove Mac Defender (it's basically scareware) etc are available at Fixkb.com. For protection measure see TUAW
Only a tiny percentage of Macs run antivirus software, and Mac users have been conditioned to believe they’re immune from Internet threats. That’s a deadly combination. Because Apple is a secretive company, it's not easy to find out whether malware on the Mac is indeed becoming more common, or it's simply being reported on more often.
Mac users have been lucky up to now. As market share for Macs continues to inch up, that equation is going to change and bad guys will begin to focus in on Macs. Macs are no more inherently secure than Windows. Hackers are now starting to pay attention to the Mac's previously malware-free world.
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For many years now Mac users have believed themselves to be invulnerable to malware, and have been encouraged in this belief by Apple themselves on more than one occasion, or ”Safeguard your data by doing nothing“.
This complacency leaves many Mac users with the mistaken belief that either Macs are not vulnerable to malware, or that none exists for their platform or both.