Apple ‘10 years’ behind Microsoft on security: Kaspersky
Welcome to Microsoft's world, Eugene Kaspersky tells Apple — The recent Flashback/Flashfake malware outbreak targeting Apple's Mac computers is likely to be just the start of a new wave of attacks aimed at the system …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Flashback/Flashfake outbreak lands after years of warnings that rising Mac adoption would make the platform a more attractive target, including a 2007 warning about Apple’s growing appeal to hackers. A security firm had also challenged the claim that Mac OS X was immune to malware a week earlier.
Kaspersky’s comparison with Microsoft turns a malware incident into a challenge to Apple’s security reputation. Kaspersky had already positioned Mac protection as a product category through its 2009 Mac offering.
First-order effects
- Apple faces pressure to respond to an outbreak that undermines the perception that Macs need less defensive attention than Windows PCs.
- Mac users and administrators must treat Flashback/Flashfake as an active endpoint-security problem rather than relying on the platform’s historical reputation.
Second-order effects
- Kaspersky and other security vendors gain a clearer basis for selling antivirus and protection products to Mac owners.
- Microsoft’s longer experience with widespread malware becomes a competitive reference point as Apple’s platform draws more attacker attention.
Third-order effects
- If Mac adoption continues to broaden, Apple’s security model will be judged less by its historical attack volume and more by how rapidly it detects, removes and prevents outbreaks.
- Endpoint security is becoming a cross-platform requirement, expanding the addressable market for vendors that can support both Windows and Mac environments.
The trend: Growing Apple device adoption is eroding the assumption that Mac users sit outside the mainstream endpoint-security market.