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s sales of the Apple iPhone and iPad continue to skyrocket, and the lightweight MacBook Air continues to gain traction, the Mac operating system (OS), not surprisingly, is becoming an increasingly more attractive target for malware writers. Security experts, however, say the Windows OS still remains at high risk for viruses, and what it all boils down to in the minds of hackers is where they can get the most bang for their buck.
“It used to be that Windows pretty much had the market for [attracting malware] and when you’re a virus writer you think, ‘How can I maximize the return on my investment?’”, says Steve Santorelli, director of global outreach for Team Cymru, a not-for-profi t internet research company. “I’m not going to write a virus that’s just going to infect fi ve percent of the world’s operating systems”, which was the market share Apple once held, he says. “It’s about money, not for notoriety.”
But the balance is now shifting. Apple now has an estimated 10% of the world’s computer market, motivating malware writers to write viruses for the Mac OS more frequently, says Santorelli, who previously worked with Scotland Yard’s Computer Crime Unit and at Microsoft. “It comes down
to economics – it now makes economic sense to turn the attention to the Mac OS because there are so many more Mac operating systems out in the world to be infected.”
Malware Goes Mobile As technology shifts toward mobile this year, attention must be paid to mobile devices, says Santorelli, especially given their growing popularity in the workplace. “Now everyone has massively shifted to mobile technology and doing things on their smartphones, and you’ve got these devices being taken into corporate networks”, he says. “People haven’t gotten their heads around the fact that viruses exist on mobile devices.” Right now, though, the “underground economy” appears to be targeting Android devices for malware, he says, looking at ways to harness new technologies like Google Wallet, which lets Android smartphone users swipe the device over a reader to make purchases. From a statistics standpoint, Santorelli says there were approximately 100 Android infections in 2011 and none in the Apple market.
David Harley, a researcher for IT consultancy Small Blue-Green World and the Mac Virus website, says he doesn’t
PC Vendor US Market Share (Q4 2010 vs. Q4 2011)
10 15 20 25 30
0 5
-30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5
Researchers often cite market share as the single biggest factor for an operating system’s vulnerability to malware. Because all operating systems contain a number of vulnerabilities, malware writers often go where the users are. While Apple may benefit financially from its increasing market share, especially in the US (the only region Apple reaches the top five vendors), this may give rise to increased attention from black hats.
Q4 2010 Q4 2011 % growth
Source: Gartner (January 2012); data includes desktops and mobile PCs, but not tablets
www.infosecurity-magazine.com /// 47
While I think OS X malware is a long-term trend, I doubt if it will be a dramatic shift like the switch from DOS viruses to Windows malware
David Harley Mac Virus
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