Kaspersky founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky says Apple is 'ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security', reports CBR.
At Info Security 2012, Kaspersky noted that Apple will have to change how it approaches updates following recent malware attacks such as the Flashback trojan which infected over 650,000 Macs.
"I think they are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security," Kaspersky told us. "For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It's always been possible to develop Mac malware, but this one was a bit different. For example it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms."
Kaspersky continued to say that an increase in Mac malware was, "just a question of time and market share. Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it's not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft's world, Mac. It's full of malware."
"Apple is now entering the same world as Microsoft has been in for more than 10 years: updates, security patches and so on," he added. "We now expect to see more and more because cyber criminals learn from success and this was the first successful one."
Kaspersky believes that Apple will have to change how it handles update cycles. It took far too long to respond to recent threats, leaving its users vulnerable to attack.
"They will understand very soon that they have the same problems Microsoft had ten or 12 years ago. They will have to make changes in terms of the cycle of updates and so on and will be forced to invest more into their security audits for the software," Kaspersky told CBR. "That's what Microsoft did in the past after so many incidents like Blaster and the more complicated worms that infected millions of computers in a short time. They had to do a lot of work to check the code to find mistakes and vulnerabilities. Now it's time for Apple [to do that]."
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At Info Security 2012, Kaspersky noted that Apple will have to change how it approaches updates following recent malware attacks such as the Flashback trojan which infected over 650,000 Macs.
"I think they are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security," Kaspersky told us. "For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows. It's always been possible to develop Mac malware, but this one was a bit different. For example it was asking questions about being installed on the system and, using vulnerabilities, it was able to get to the user mode without any alarms."
Kaspersky continued to say that an increase in Mac malware was, "just a question of time and market share. Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it's not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft's world, Mac. It's full of malware."
"Apple is now entering the same world as Microsoft has been in for more than 10 years: updates, security patches and so on," he added. "We now expect to see more and more because cyber criminals learn from success and this was the first successful one."
Kaspersky believes that Apple will have to change how it handles update cycles. It took far too long to respond to recent threats, leaving its users vulnerable to attack.
"They will understand very soon that they have the same problems Microsoft had ten or 12 years ago. They will have to make changes in terms of the cycle of updates and so on and will be forced to invest more into their security audits for the software," Kaspersky told CBR. "That's what Microsoft did in the past after so many incidents like Blaster and the more complicated worms that infected millions of computers in a short time. They had to do a lot of work to check the code to find mistakes and vulnerabilities. Now it's time for Apple [to do that]."
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