It seems that when it comes to viruses and other nasties, Apple computers are no longer the walled garden they’re often made out to be. Computer security firm Sophos found two viruses for OSX, named Tored-A and Jahlav-C, on popular pornography sites. The viruses install themselves on users’ computers by way of claiming that visitors to the porn sites have to install ActiveX controllers to see content, despite ActiveX’s being a proprietary part of only the Internet Explorer browser. According to Graham Cluley of Sophos, Mac users are more at threat than people think.
Apple gets off on telling customers that the Mac platform is not riddled with viruses, and while most malware that targets an operating system still goes after Windows, it’s irresponsible to make people think that they are safe because they run OS X. So there’s a whole contingent of Mac users who do not run antivirus software. When these users get hit, they think they’re fine right up until their computers don’t boot anymore.
The other problem that many of the “Mac has no viruses” claim overlooks is that virtualization is now a pretty big thing. We’re not talking about users who boot into Windows, but just anyone who runs a browser. Malware that targets Firefox doesn’t care which operating system you’re running it on. Parts of the code change based on which platform a browser is running on, but developers reuse code, and the guys who write malacious code know that. They want to do the most damage possible, so if they find a vulnerability that’s prevalent across platforms, that’s what they’re going to target.
At the end of the day, the best thing anyone can do is stay smart. If you see a notification about ActiveX in a non-Internet Explorer browser, browser away. If you get an email from someone you don’t know with an attached application, don’t run it. Security software will protect you to an extent, but knowledge makes for the best defense.
