Mac Malware Numbers Growing? Uh, Not Really.

Titles like that raise my blood pressure. Christ Matier does not seem to understand the difference between a virus and a trojan horse, so he announces that malware for Mac users is growing. How about some stats with retarded observation, Chris?

Malware for OS X is a problem that is growing, and it is growing quickly.

That’s both true and utterly ridiculous. Windows PCs are infected with tens of thousands of viruses, worms, and trojan horse malware. The Mac? Name five. See? Not so easy, huh? The problem here is scale. If there are four in the wild trojan horses and viruses for the Mac, and one more arrives, that’s growing, and growing quickly; a 25-percent increase with just one. See the problem?

As the popularity of Macs grow, the popularity of Mac malware will grow proportionally.

No it won’t. Proportion has nothing to do with anything. If the Mac has approximately 10-percent (rounded up, easy math) of business desktop and home user market share, then shouldn’t the Mac have 10-percent of the hundreds of thousands of malware in the wild?

The reality is that Mac OS X, from a user perspective, is inherently more secure than a Windows PC, especially XP. Say thank you to Unix permissions. The Mac’s underlying structure makes it crazy difficult for a malware writer to deliver a virus, worm, or trojan horse, the latter of which is the easiest because it is user dependent.

User dependent? Yes. I can write a small script, give it to you to install on your Mac, and if you do, it can erase your hard drive. It’s that easy. The problem isn’t the Mac, it’s the user. That’s not the case with a virus or worm which can cause damage, and replicate itself and spread. That doesn’t happen on the Mac without user intervention.

The latest threat is a little program called Puper, a trojan that hides itself as a disk image for a program for MacCinema. Once installed, it goes about the dirty work of downloading more nasty stuff to your system every five hours. Now, as is the case with all viruses, malware, and spyware, it is easy to avoid.

Italics are mine. Bad advice, Chris. Go back to the definition of virus, worm, trojan horse, spyware, and malware. If you’re a Windows XP user avoiding any of those is not so easy.

Puper will not be the last piece of Mac malware; we will continue to see more and more everyday. Soon, I expect that Apple or some other vendor will have a constant virus scan suite for the Mac just like Windows does.

Wrong. Everyday? Get real. That means by the end of summer there would another 60 or so, at only one per day, right? No, that won’t happen. A single malware does not a threat make. Chris doesn’t seem to understand that there are already virus protection software scan titles available for Mac users. They’re about as effective as scanning the air for viruses.

Take the time to know the differences in malware; a virus is not a trojan is not a worm is not necessarily spyware. Be prudent about downloading and installing software to your Mac. But don’t cave in to blaring headlines from hit mongers or security software vendors.