One of the key aspects contributing to the consumer perception that Mac OS X is more secure than Windows is the threat environment orbiting around each platform. Or, better yet, the absence of a fully evolved threat environment for Apple's proprietary operating system. In this regard, Microsoft's OS is situated at the opposite pole, managing to successfully attract the vast majority of threats to it. Apple was little shy of applauding this advantage over Microsoft, and even pushed marketing as far as educating Mac computer users that no malware for OS X existed to put them at risk.
Fact is that the threat landscape for OS X did pass its embryonic stage, catalyzed by the continuous growth in market share of the operating system, and Apple was forced to evolve with it and acknowledge that there was, in fact, malicious code impacting its operating system. Microsoft welcomed the reality check for its rival in Cupertino.
“Honestly, the whole discussion is ridiculous, as Cybercrime is a fact of life and so is malware. As soon as Apple users become a profitable target on some scale, they will be attacked. Everybody who thinks differently puts their head in the sand,”
Roger Halbheer, chief security advisor of Microsoft EMEA, revealed.
“And now finally Apple arrived in today’s world: Apple Acknowledges OS X Malware and on their
website they write: 'The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box. However, since no system can be 100 percent immune from every threat, antivirus software may offer additional protection.'”
Just the past week, security company Sophos pointed out that it came across a new piece of malware for Mac OS X. An update to Jahlav,
OSX/Jahlav-C is designed to act as a Trojan downloader, executing a Perl script to communicate with a remote server in order to download code supplied by the attacker. OSX/Jahlav-C spreads through videos featuring explicit content. In this context, Halbheer noted that Apple was doing the right thing by informing its users that they could be at risk of getting infected even if they were running OS X.
“I think that this is a big and a very good move! I would now welcome Apple to join the industry communities like SafeCode to work jointly on getting products more secure or initiatives like 2CENTRE to train law enforcement. I am a big supporter of industry/government collaboration, but when it comes to Law Enforcement, there are often not too many companies at the table. Security to me is not only products and processes. It is about partnerships,” Halbheer added.
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