News

PC Versus Mac Security

ESET released the results of a survey in November related to awareness of cybercrime in the U.S. The survey of more than 1,000 people found that both PC and Mac users perceive the Mac as being safer. However, contrary to that belief, Mac users are victims of cybercrime just as frequently as PC users.

Mac users are just as vulnerable to Web-based attacks like phishing as PC users are, and Mac users who fall prey to phishing tend to lose more money than PC users do. "Viruses are a diminishing percentage of what we're seeing," said Randy Adams, director of technical education at ESET. "A lot of attacks have to do with social engineering and that kind of attack is platform agnostic."

What he means by that is that they fool the user into making a mistake and letting the virus or spyware in. So, for example, they will convince you that you are downloading a legitimate antivirus, when you are really downloading and installing malware.

Secunia Research

Secunia has found that the average PC user needs to update some insecure software on his or her computer 75 times per year (more than once every five days), just to keep known security vulnerabilities closed.