1 in 5 Apple computers are infected with viruses according to a new study. There has long been a held belief among uninformed buyers that Apple has somehow managed to make their computers so secure that hackers don’t even bother attempting to exploit weaknesses in the Mac OS X operating system. The truth is for years there simply wasn’t enough of a mass market to make Apple computers worth hacking. With more consumers and many businesses turning to Macbook Pro, iMac and iOS based systems however malware is become a real world problem.
Research firm Sophos recently released a claim in which the company says 1 in 5 systems out of 100,000 tested were infected with some form of malware. The study reveals that 20% of Macs carry at least one and in many cases more than one form of Windows based malware.
In a challenge to the prevailing belief that Apple computers are immune to the sort of cyberattacks that plague WIndows-based machines, research firm Sophos has released a study claiming that one in five Macs have malware. While Windows based malware won’t affect a Mac user if they don’t run Windows on their systems it can cause the virus’ to spread, causing issues for other users.
The report also found that 2.7% of Macs have become infected with Mac OS malware including the Flashback botnet which is easily installed when users download email attachments, visit rogue websites or install the virus accidentally from a USB drive.
In the meantime Mac OS X users can protect their systems with Sophos’ free Mac antivirus software and by avoiding attachments from unknown sources and staying away from questionable websites.
Here’s a graph showing the typical instances of certain popular malware programs:
