Well, the operating system that is supposed to be impervious to malware, at least according to the fanboys out there, is now hosting a botnet. You may rationally ask, what is a botnet? A botnet is a group of computers that are linked together, unknown by the users, usually by some form of malware. They communicate with a central computer, which may change, to receive their instructions, which may be nearly anything from sending out spam to participating in a denial of service attack against a network, a group of computers, or, even, a single computer that has a connection to the internet, to collecting personal information that may include user names and passwords, bank account information, and credit card information. The article I read, was published on April 17, 2009 by Network World, who garnered the information from macworld.co.uk. The malware creating this botnet was contained in two program files available via P2P (peer to peer) networks, iWork '09 and Photoshop CS4.
Subsequent readings, and notes I have found on the web mainly consist of fanboys claiming this to be merely FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) being spread by the evil foe of Apple, Microsoft, or, another unknown entity, still claiming that Macs are invulnerable. Even when confronted by others with evidence of the existence of this botnet, and earlier instances of Macs being affected by various Trojans, the merely dismiss the facts and proclaim the superiority of their chosen computing gear and OS.
For us in the PC world, what the heck does this mean? For those in the Mac world, should you be frightened and running for cover, or should you believe in the fanboy choir? Obviously, for all of us, there is one overriding lesson here. If you have the opportunity to get a piece of commercial software free for a download, be very wary of the offer. If you do not know the source of the software, avoid it as it may well be infected with some form of malware. Another lesson is that on should always protect one's equipment and software by using a good anti-virus program. This means that you need to ensure that the program is not only installed and running, but that it is being updated regularly, preferably at least once each day, and that regular scans of your machine are scheduled. These days it is much easier to prevent infection than to clean it.
One factor that is often overlooked is that while Windows users are infected with malware much more often, it is primarily because it is the dominant operating system in the world. The Mac operating systems in use make up a very small percentage—in the single digit range—of available operating systems. It is much more profitable for those who write malware to infect a Windows machine, than it is to infect a Mac. Since the advent of the much maligned Vista has been on the scene, there has been a subtle shift to using the Mac instead of a PC. The creation of this botnet may be looked upon as, perhaps, an experiment to test the waters of using Macs to elicit a payday for the creators of this botnet. If they are seen as being successful, then this will be far from being the exception, and Mac users can look to the need to be much more proactive in defense of their computing environment than they have been in the past.
Oh, and you Linux users out there, don't get yourselves into a fret, such things will eventually come to your operating system as well.
As LAN Doctor, we primarily work with PCs that run Windows, but have come to the rescue for the occasional Mac as well. Feel free to contact us with your problems, 703.356.3070.
You can read the article I mentioned at First Mac OS X botnet activated.
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