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Market share IS a factor

I've been a heavy Mac user and software/hardware tech since 1985, and until recently, I thought that the only real reason there has been very little actual malware for OS X, was OS X's built-in security. But as I continue to read about the number of potential points of attack for malware under OS X, and I learn more about the changing nature of malware (mass takeovers of computers to turn them into zombie spambots, etc., with some malware authors getting good pay from their "masters" all over the world), now I believe that small marketshare does play a large part in the Mac's supposed immunity. Malware authors, in recent years, have had a real incentive for attacking the OS that will give them the most penetration--financial gain. It's no longer just about a malware author wanting to see how far his work could travel the globe, like electronic children, and/or play pranks, and get reported in the news, nor is it any longer mainly about a malware author wanting to "get back" at Microsoft, or cause trouble for some other form of gain--financial gain has upped the number of attacks by several times, and these people don't want to waste their time writing malware that, even if successful, would up their success rate by only a few percent. I wonder if the original malware impulses even run a close second now to the financial gain reasons--I suppose the anti-malware companies have some statistics on this. And yes, I WOULD believe a black hat programmer's statements to the effect that they do choose to target Windows largely because it has more market share, and so their efforts are more frequently rewarded.

However, OS X still has better security than Windows, and that really is another reason malware authors haven't tried hard to attack OS X. With some glaring exceptions, security holes in OS X seem to get patched faster than they do in Windows. And, many security holes in OS X would allow only limited attacks. But who's to say how many new security flaws might be discovered by malware authors if the Mac OS was running on substantially more computers, and thus seen as a useful platform for financial gain? The list of security measures that most users can implement, given by mercat in the message titled " MOAB: Meh...", is wise. One I'd add for OS X users, is not to run in an admin account if you can help it, but instead to have an admin account installed for use only when you need it. Sure, it means you may have to respond to some more alerts asking for your login password, but that may turn out to be a fair tradeoff one day if someone starts writing some successful wildfire malware for OS X. Personally, I doubt malware will ever be a big problem with OS X, but I can't decide how much that attitude resembles putting my head in the sand.

Posted by: John Sawyer   Posted on: 01/16/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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