Sophos Release FREE Antivirus for the Apple MAC

November 18, 2010

Q: Have you got an Apple Mac PC?  

A: Yes.

Q: Have you got Antivirus for it?

A: [HaHa] No. I don’t need it.  I’m not a PC.

Well it’s time to rethink.  Take a look.

For years the Apple Mac has enjoy relative safety with respect to viruses but it’s all changing. Historically the PC has been the primary target purely because of the volume of machines but with the advent of the iPhone there are now two reasons for attack.

• Firstly the criminals target people to steal their identity and credit card details
• Secondly where there’s a Mac there’s a good chance an iPhone will be attached; and they can hijack this to make calls to high rate numbers.

Now the second point may be speculation but it’s been proven how easy it is a hack an iPhone.  After all they utilise a bug on the OS to Jailbreak them.  As Mike Gallagher, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Global Threat Intelligence for McAfee said:

“Our Q3 Threat report shows that cybercriminals are not only becoming more saavy, but attacks are becoming increasingly more severe,” and “Cybercriminals are doing their homework, and are aware of what’s popular, and what’s insecure. They are attacking mobile devices and social networking sites, so education about user activity online, as well as incorporating the proper security technologies are of utmost importance.”

And if you think it’s not easy to break a Mac, take a look at the results of Pwn2Own last years hackers conference where Safari was hacked in no time.

“It took a couple of seconds.  They clicked on the link and I took control of the machine,” Miller said moments after his accomplishment.

In Step Sophos

Now it’s clear when a big player in the AntiVirus market gets involved it’s time to take notice. There has been a marked increase in the number of viruses targeting the Apple platform so now may be the best time to get involved.

Best of all it’s free!