Virus
Android attracts 112 times more malware than Apple's iOS
March 7, 2013: 12:55 PM ETChart of the day: Mobile threats by platform, 2012
Source: F-Secure
FORTUNE -- Phil Schiller, Apple's (AAPL) ebullient senior VP for marketing, was doing his thing on Twitter Thursday, alerting his 67,866 followers that Google's (GOOG) Android platform accounted for 79% of all mobile malware in 2012.
His tweet:
@pschiller: Be safe out there: f-secure.com/static/doc/lab…
What he doesn't mention is that iOS threats, which were nonexistent in 2010 and 2011, showed up on F-Secure's radar for the first time in 2012.
On the other hand, iOS came out unscathed in F-Secure's report for the fourth quarter of 2012, while new Android variants registered a sharp spike, accounting for 96% of the malware attacks on mobile devices worldwide. See below:
Source: F-Secure
F-Secure's Mobile Threat Report for Q4 2012
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Apple 2.0's ten most-read stories of 2011
A stock-market anomaly, a new iPhone, a second iPad, two new wireless carriers, a swarm of lawsuits and a malware false alarm
Out of the 793 items about Apple (AAPL) filed in this space over the past 12 months, these were the 10 that -- for good or ill -- interested the most readers:
Snapshot of an Apple flash crash: What triggered the sell-off that knocked $10 billion off the company's market cap? (Feb. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 31, 2011 7:00 AM ET -
Apple malware: 6 years of crying wolf
A collection of dire warnings from the past puts this week's alarms into perspective
Three days after ZDNet ran a piece entitled "Coming Soon to a Mac Near You: Serious Malware": Daring Fireball's John Gruber has posted, under the headline "Wolf!" more than a dozen variations on the same theme.
They date back to 2004 and all sound a familiar warning: Apple (AAPL), having achieved critical mass in the market place, is MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 5, 2011 7:41 PM ETPosted in: Apple, Daring Fireball, iPods, John Gruber, Macintosh, malware, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Mobile, PCs, Tablets, Trojan, Virus, Windows, Worm -
Is Mac under a virus attack?
No. But there's some bad news rising on the Apple malware front
Let's see if we can handle this one as a Q&A.
Q: Is there a Mac OS X virus loose on the Internet? Technically, no. As far as I know, no Mac OS X virus has ever been detected in the wild. But there are other kinds of Mac malware out there that you should know about.
Q: Like what? The MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 4, 2011 10:44 AM ETPosted in: Anti-Virus, Apple, Intego, MAC Defender, Mac OS X, malware, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, PCs, Safari, Virus, Weyland-Yutani BOT -
That old Mac malware canard
Why would Symantec's CEO suggest that Macs are just as vulnerable as Windows PCs?
Maybe to sell more anti-viral software.
That's the only explanation I can give for Enrique Salem's performance in a video posted on CNNMoney Thursday entitled "Macs are no safer than PCs." (Video below the fold.)
Fortune's Adam Lashinsky asked Symantec's (SYMC) CEO several different ways whether a Mac was as likely to get attacked by malware as a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 17, 2011 2:40 PM ETPosted in: Adam Lashinsky, Enrique Salem, Mac, malware, Microsoft, PC, Symantec, Virus, Vista, Windows, Windows 7, Windows XP -
About those gangs of Russian hackers targeting Macs
"Hey Dimwitt here's a pcworld article about russian hackers targeting Macs. http://tiny.cc/dL4Yi."
I assume that message, sent via Twitter by "chalupatime" Saturday afternoon, was directed at me because I wrote something a few weeks ago called "Why are there no Mac viruses?"
My tortilla-loving friend is correct. There is indeed an article by Gregg Keizer in PC World (as well as in Computerworld) about Apple (AAPL) computers being targeted for malware.
Keizer's source MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 27, 2009 9:53 AM ET
