10 years of Mac OS X malware

Petrovic

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Apr 25, 2013
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The malware problem on Mac OS X is nothing like as bad as it is on Windows.

There are something like 200,000 new Windows malware variants being discovered each day. Malicious code activity in the Mac world is far less frenetic, but the fact is, malware does exist that can infect our iMacs or MacBooks.

And if your Apple computer is unlucky enough to fall victim you’re not going to feel any better than your PC-owning friends who are struggling to remove a backdoor Trojan or a pernicious browser toolbar from their copy of Windows.

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Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that Mac malware is not a new phenomenon.

Malware for Apple devices actually predates the Macintosh *and* the PC, with the first example being the Elk Cloner worm written by Rich Skrenta, and designed to infect Apple II devices way back in 1982.

But threats on Apple II and Apple computers running Mac OS 9 and earlier aren’t really relevant anymore to anyone aside from historians.

What modern Mac users care about are what malware threats exist for Mac OS X.
And, it turns out, that 2014 will see the tenth anniversary of Mac OS X malware. Here are some of the more notable examples of worms and Trojan horses that have been seen for the platform in the last ten years.

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