14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers from F-Secure have put together a report to show the evolution of new threats that target Apple systems. The numbers show the new unique variants the company’s threat researchers detected during the last three quarters of 2011.
More than half of the malicious elements that targeted Mac-running machines were Trojan Downloaders, their numbers being followed by Backdoors, Trojans and rogue malware.
From April to December, 58 new unique malware variants were detected, most of which in June when 2 Backdoors, 7 Trojan Downloaders and 3 pieces of rogue malware attempted to infect Mac computers.
Another peek was recorded in October, a number of 11 unique versions being identified.
While they’re far from being comparable to Windows malware, experts believe that their rise is the result of “opportunist ‘bubble economies’ that have produced new threats in fits and starts.”