By Munir Kotadia, 30 March 2005 08:40
NEWS Just a week after Symantec caused uproar in the Mac community by warning the OS X operating system was quickly becoming a target for hackers and viruses, Gartner has warned businesses reliant on the Mac to guard against "spyware infestations."
Martin Reynolds, vice president of the research firm's Dataquest organisation, said last week that although the number of Apple systems used in businesses is relatively small, just one vulnerability exploit could cause trouble.
"The Macintosh installed base is relatively small, with only about three per cent of systems in use today running the Mac OS," Reynolds wrote in a research note. "The Mac OS is also a harder targetÂ…However, it only takes one exploited weakness to cause trouble," he added.
He said that a Mac-only worm would be unlikely to spread very quickly but it might be possible to create a hybrid worm that attacks both the Mac and Microsoft Windows operating systems.
"If an infected Macintosh attempts to spread a worm, it will reach a system resistant to that infection 97 per cent of the time. A hybrid worm targeting both the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows could be developed but such an attack would be difficult to orchestrate," Reynolds said.
He was also concerned that spyware targeting the Mac OS could establish itself before its existence was widely documented.
"Although it is almost nonexistent on the Mac platform today, problem spyware could emerge. Spyware that exploits vulnerabilities can establish itself more deeply in the system, becoming both harder to detect and harder to remove. Don't assume that your Macintosh systems are immune from viruses and other malicious-code attacks," said Reynolds.
Munir Kotadia writes for ZDNet Australia
Comments
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1. Richard Cain
Can't help thinking that this is yet another self-fulfilling prophesy that would just happen to boost revenues for Mac OS security products.
Call me Mr Cynical.........
2. M Connelly
I am amazed that so many headlines over Mac OS X security are popping up while there are currently zero OS X viruses or worms going around. These reports are all "maybe", "possibly", "theoretically". Come on, lets have some real news and not just the ramblings of some publicity-hungry execs
3. Michael
You know, an asteroid could also crash into the earth. What a non story. Simple scare mongering and an disguting excuse on the part of Gartner/Dataquest to grab a few tabloid inches. Pathetic. Maybe Mr reynolds should concentrate on helping to educate the hundreds of thousands of windows PC users out there with their zombie machines who don't have, or even understand the need to have, proper virus protection.
Fact: Current number of Windows viruses, spyware, worms, torjan horses etc =70,000+. Current number of Mac OSX viruses, spyware, worms, trojan horses etc etc = 0
Lots of reason why, and yes mainly because the user base is only 3%. But, by its very design, Mac OSX is an incredibly more secure system then Windows, mainly due to its far better programming as opposed to the bloatware of windows.
4. Simon ('Devout Mac User')
Well I thought it was a balanced article. It did say that such cross-platform worms would be technically difficult to write - but I agree that we should not just pretend that such things cannot happen.
The fact is that 'malware' can be written to affect the Mac, or Linux, or any system. It may be harder than certain other systems, but it's still a possibility. One key thing to remember is that it matters not how secure you make the system itself - there is always the user who can let something in if the writer is clever enough with their 'social engineering'.
But I too, sometimes have to wonder what the real reason for these 'announcements' are !
5. anonymous
Mr Cynical,
Considering that this one comes from Microsoft, opps,sorry, Gartner, it's quite probable that it is more FUD to steer people away from MACs.
Mr Cynincal's Brother
6. anonymous
Well what can i say, Mr IT Manager from london (which is a city not a country), if your only protected from 70K viruses then you may soon have a problem, last count from Sophos is over 100K.
The article is a valid point, with the unfortunate society that we live in it is necessary to protect any platform regardless how secure it claims to be, you can never get over the bigest security problem which is the user quite often managers who demand root or admin privaliges (something that i do not allow).
It would be a good idea to take your head out of the sand regarding security.
7. Graham Coles
For an even bigger laugh, take a look at the advert for antivirus software for OS X from Intego -- it shows a list of viruses being detected on a mac. Rather curiously every one of them has the prefix W32!
The last time a company alleged a real Mac worm had been discovered, it turned out it had to be e-mailed to a recipient, manually executed and installed using an administrator's password before it could even spread!
I expect that we will see viruses and worms for the Mac in time, however it would be nice not to keep having these ridiculous "end of the world" prophecies by companies before they appear.
8. Richard
Macs 10x more interesting than PCs - It's official !
Consider these ratios:
Wintel malware to Mac OS X malware:
> approx 100,000 to 0
Installed Wintel PCs to Macs:
> roughly 32 to 1
News articles about virus threats (real or imagined) for Winel and for Mac OS X:
> around 3 to 1
Are Macs really 10 times more newsworthy (per unit) than Wintel PCs?
...Better, yes, more beatiful, yes, easier and more satisfying to use, a thousand times YES! ... but 10 time more interesting? I wonder.
9. Noel Cosgrave
Ah, it's only Gartner and their usual mixture of FUD and borrowing watches to only to tell the owner of the watch what time it is. Need I say more?