Blog : Malware on Your Mac: Apple?s OS X Slowly Looking like Windows

For Apple, being the underdog was an easy game to play that expected little from them and demanded zero responsibility. This was the state of Apple 11 years ago. Rewinding back to March of 2001, there was no iPod, iMac, iTunes, iPhone, or iPad; and OS X (10.0 Cheetah) was just entering the market as the first overhaul to the classic Mac interface originally introduced in 1984. From 1984 to 1997 (97? when Apple purchased NeXT and reestablished Steve Jobs as CEO), Windows flourished almost completely unrivaled by any competitor in a consumer setting, and generated one of the largest bullseyes ever created in the tech world. Even as Mac gained in market share, it still failed to reach the business audience until recently. Only now, does Mac have a significant presence in both consumer and business markets to hold a big enough target on its back to entice hackers to fire.

Enter Flashback ? one thing about 2012 Apple would love you to forget. The malware reached over 600,000 Macs through an unpatched Java vulnerability and infected any remaining credibility Apple had to the anti-virus argument touted for years from the company soapbox. As their platform of infallibility?was kicked out from under them, so was their branding. Apple has begun slowly removing ?It doesn?t get PC viruses? slogan to a more conservative approach claiming ?It?s built to be safe.? This is part of the growing trend from Apple to restructure their security messaging (image from geek.com). With popularity arrives hacking incentive. Apple never had a magical security solution, but merely maintained security through irrelevance ? something Windows users have been singing for years.

As products become more relevant, so do their vulnerabilities.?So it won?t come as a surprise to hear reports that Apple?s new OS X rendition (10.8 Mountain Lion) will own a new patch update system similar to Microsoft. In the past, Apple would marinate and slow cook updates taking forever to release them. Now the updater will check daily (originally weekly) for patch updates and install them automatically or upon restart. This is a change from previous/current versions of OS X that prompted you to install updates that could easily be neglected by users. Our most vulnerable app research has shown that anytime you can develop an automatic update system within your software, it potentially makes your product more secure. This is one the biggest problems with Android,?and its fragmentation, where it lacks centrally managing new updates automatically.

Reports that additional updates are being included to strengthen the connection between consumer Macs and Apple?s update server as well. This is especially important, after claims that Microsoft certificates were easily spoofed by Flame while the malware posed as a Microsoft patch update. It?s getting wild out there, as the oasis that was your Mac slowly fades into the desert. It?s good that Apple is making these changes, but it should alert you to be leery of the next underdog making security promises they can?t keep.

Source: http://www.bit9.com/blog/2012/06/27/malware-on-your-mac-apples-os-x-slowly-looking-like-windows/

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