Over 93% of the respondents in a survey conducted by security company Sophos revealed that they expect Mac OS X to come under increasing attacks from cybercriminals in the future. Sophos is essentially discussing an interesting perspective over the security of Mac OS X. Is there a Big Mac attack in the making? Or are the professed scenarios where OS X would come under a barrage of fire nothing more than the results of super-sized hype.

"A web poll of more than 350 computer users, conducted by Sophos in the shadow of the discovery of the first financially motivated malware for Mac OS X, has revealed that 93% believe Apple Macintoshes will be targeted more in future. However, half of those polled said they did not believe the problem would be as great as that faced by users of Microsoft Windows," Sophos stated.

Sophos' web poll, conducted between 29 January-7 February 2008, revealed that the vast majority of the 355 respondents believe that Macs will be targeted more in the future. Apple is currently pushing in excess of 2 million Mac computer for every fiscal quarter, and this number is rapidly increasing. Also growing are the number of Mac OS X users that trusting in the Apple security propaganda are failing to take the most basic security measures, such as installing an antivirus.

With Macs becoming more popular than ever, the threat environment has also shifted focus away from the Windows platform. Still 50% of respondents believe that while Mac OS X attack will increase, they will never be as bad as for Windows. Only 7% of respondents stated that Mac OS X will not be targeted more by cybercriminals in the future.

"Although we have seen the first attempts by criminal gangs to make money through Mac OS X malware, the fact of that matter is that there is only a tiny number of viruses and Trojan horses for Apple Macs when compared to Windows PCs. It seems unlikely that the Mac virus problem will ever be as big as the Windows one," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Yes, the Macintosh malware threat is a concern - but it's important to put it in perspective. Sophos's podcast discusses the history and evolution of Macintosh malware, helping IT administrators better understand the problem and protect their systems."