Mac malware

[rslade]

Shlayer has been infecting Macs for almost two years.  It's a very simple piece of malware (or family, since there are many simple variants), but is quite prolific and successful.

This takes me back to the early days of malware.  I recall when there were only dozens of viruses for MS-DOS, but only a handful for Macs.  Despite that, infection rates for Macs were significantly higher for Mac environments than for MS-DOS enterprises.  (I recall one colleague who specialized in Macs telling me that he typically saw 30% infection rates in Mac environments--at a time when most MS-DOS users couldn't expect to see a virus from one year to the next.)

Macs have always had a kind of security mystique.  There is a myth (and it is definitely a myth) that Macs are safer than other kinds of computers.  It doesn't matter what kind of computer you use: you have to consider security or you are going to get hit.

[denbesten]

There is a name for that belief, Reality Distortion Field.  It is still going strong at Apple (and other places, too).