A leading technology journalist is making the case that Apple's Mac OS is close to the tipping point of becoming a major target for malware attacks. Ed Bott, the former US editor of PC Computing magazine and managing editor of PC World, posted up his evidence on his blog site at ZDNet.
Bott goes over several reasons behind his ideas. One of them tries to dispel the myth that the Mac OS is a rock solid operating system compared to Microsoft's Windows OS in terms of dealing with computer viruses. In fact, Bott makes the case that the Mac OS is just as vulnerable and just as open to viruses and malware attacks as Windows. So why has the Mac OS not been as affected as the Windows platform in terms of viruses? It's all about the money, according to Bott.
He says that Macs have become more and more popular over the last few years with consumers. Indeed the amount of web traffic based on Mac OS-based PCs has doubled in the past three years according to studies. At the same time, fewer and fewer PCs are using Windows XP as the OS which is much easier to hack into than the newer versions of Windows. All of this could make the Mac OS more interesting to malware creators. In the end Bott says, "My prediction is that the bad guys are still 'testing market conditions,' and waiting for the right time for their grand opening." He believes there will be a few beta tests for Mac OS malware programs before someone goes all out with a significant release and that could spell bad news for all Mac owners.
78 Comments - Add comment