Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky security software development company, told attendees at the Infosecurity 2012 conference in London that Apple is behind Microsoft by 10 years in terms of security.
“For many years I’ve been saying that from a security point of view, there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It’s always been possible to develop Mac malware, but this one [referring to Flashback] was a bit different. For example, it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms.”
“I think they are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security,” Kaspersky told us. “For many years I’ve been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It’s always been possible to develop Mac malware, but this one was a bit different. For example it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms.”
Kaspersky predicted that this is not the end of Apple’s run-ins with viruses. “Cyber criminals have now recognized that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it’s not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft’s world, Mac. It’s full of malware.”
It is interesting to note that Flashback takes advantage of loopholes around Java, which is not initially developed by Apple. The company has also dealt with malware last year, resulting to an update into OS X’s built-in antimalware tool. However, most Mac users tend not to use antivirus and antispyware programs, thus making their computers prone to future malware attackes.
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