This is what IT security expert Ty Miller believes as malware issues hit an all time high.
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So, what does Windows has that Apple doesn’t? A lot, apparently.
“99 percent of malware is still developed for the Windows platform since malware writers want to get the biggest bang for their buck when they release their malicious software,” Ty Miller, chief technology officer from Pure Hacking, told Fairfax Media.
However, Apple devices, including the ever popular Macs, are “far easier to infect than a Windows machine these days”.
And it appears there are major issues emerging with malware posing as ‘Mac Defender’ and ‘Protector’ which lands into inboxes and are difficult to remove as they are already running, in many cases.
This comes as AppleCare support representatives revealed the number of malware-related support calls has spiked recently, with the invasion of phoney programmes posing as Mac Defender and Mac Protector which tells users they have a virus and gives anti-virus software to install, which they are asked to pay for.
One victim reported on Apple’s discussion forum: “I have the Mac Defender virus, got it late last night on an image search. I trashed as much as I could, but unpleasant unwanted sites keeps popping up on Firefox.” Another even gave over credit card details to the scam.
“As both Mac laptops and Apple devices increase in popularity, we will be seeing a continued increase in malware targeting Mac users,”Miller confirmed.
“Mac Defender has appeared in my iMac (OS X 10.6.7). I tried to remove it by dragging the program to the trash from the applications folder, but I cant because the program is open.The program is pretending to be an antivirus program send $$, obviously a scam. I re-started but I cant stop it from loading,” another user wrote on an Apple forum.
And this isn’t the only area Miller has warned about. Just last week he told ChannelNews that Facebook and other social media applications were hugely vulnerable to online hacks.
“During our web application penetration tests we find that complex web applications, such as social networking sites, often contain serious vulnerabilities such as weak access controls.”
“Last week I had to do a penetration test targeted at compromising specific Facebook accounts using only information available on the Internet.”
This was successfully achieved by compromising the victim’s Hotmail account and then using the “Forgotten Password” feature to reset their Facebook password, he revealed.
Users can find out more information on Mac Defender and How to get rid of it on Apple Support Communities.
