Macs Vulnerable to Malware? Say It Ain't So!

IT security firm Sophos this week let the cat out of the bag, spilled the beans, and otherwise debunked the widely treasured myth that Macs are invulnerable to malware in its Sophos Security Threat Report 2008 (registration required); released Tuesday. The report said that, among other things, "in 2007 [organized] criminal gangs for the first time arrived at Apple's doorstep with the intention of stealing money." Proof, the firm said, that "hackers are extending their efforts beyond Windows."

Of course, the Mac platform has never been invulnerable to malware of any sort, though since the advent of Mac OS X such malicious code had generally been confined to labs in which researchers played out "what if" scenarios that never came to fruition. Serious crimeware developers simply hadn't bothered with the Mac until late, perhaps for the same reason game developers left the platform alone for so long: The audience was too limited to be worth the effort.