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For more than 26 years, Apple Computer has, for the most part, avoided the security spotlight. This good fortune is at least partly due to its significantly smaller share of the personal computer market, especially when compared to behemoth Microsoft. In fact, Apple has been perceived as a platform and technology that is “virus free” and “immune” to security flaws – particularly those that have plagued Microsoft over the past 20 years. But as Apple’s Macintosh OS X operating system (Mac OS) gains ground in the market and Apple’s consumer technologies, such as iPod and iTunes, continue to enjoy widespread popularity, security researchers and hackers will increasingly point their digital lock picks toward the Mac OS and other Apple products, making Apple a growing target for malware attacks.

Until recently, Apple’s small 2.2% to 2.3% share of the global personal computer market has, more than anything else, protected it from the attentions of malware authors. Since 1987 McAfee AVERT labs has documented just 76 viruses targeted at the Mac OS (see Figure 1 for the annual distribution). Compared to the 168,000 threats, including about 100,000 viruses, targeted at Windows devices from 1986 through the end of 2005, the contrast is striking.

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apple, macintosh, malware, osx