It used to be, back when I was in high school, that it was fashionable to hate Microsoft, or M$ as the company was known. Nowadays, Apple is increasingly the target of silly op-eds, message board rants and, it turns out, malicious hackers. Since October, F-Secure security researchers have found 100-150 variants of a Mac-targeting malware program; last year, only one or two of these programs were found. Apple sold 2.1 million macs this past quarter to 1.1 million last year. Coincidence?
Poor Apple. The more successful it becomes, the more it finds itself in harm’s way. A sort of “more money, more problems” conundrum.
For the record, in my six or so years of using a Mac, I’ve never run into any sort of malware, be it spyware or virus or trojan. Just be smart about using the Internet and you’ll avoid all that nonsense.
Apple’s rising popularity lures hackers [Financial Times]
Of course what the article glosses over is that these bits-o-malware are all spread by social engineering. In essence, you have to install the malware yourself! It’s no fault of Apple’s, there’s no security hole aside from the one between the ears of the operator. There’s a *huge* difference between this and an Outlook worm like “I Love You” and its brethren.
F-secure (and other companies that sell anti-virus/anti-malware) products love to put out FUD articles that cause people to run out and buy their products. It’s simple: If you don’t know the source of the application, or if trying to open an image file asks for an administrator password, it’s probably something malicious.
“Apple is increasingly the target of silly op-eds”…. ironic piece really
“F-secure (and other companies that sell anti-virus/anti-malware) products love to put out FUD articles…”
And so do Microsoft funded Black PR sites like Crunch Gear.
Technical bloggers are quickly becoming the tool for media savvy “Security Researchers” with nothing to sell and nothing to say.
Unfortunately there is a vast audience of village idiot bloggers eager to write about something they, themselves, know nothing about.
There needs to be some sort of National Blogger Competency Test so “Clueless” tech writers and bloggers actually have to understand “Tech” to be able to write about tech issues in a public space.
Or perhaps they can go back to the mall to their old job selling shoes or making smoothies.
Follow the money….