Mac OS X endured 58 separate malware attacks Apr-Dec 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net - Mac OS X endured 58 separate malware attacks from April 2011 to December 2011, a small fraction when compared to Microsoft's Windows operating system, according to a new summary from a security research firm, Apple Insider reported.

Security lab F-Secure released its 2011 Mac Malware Summary earlier this week, noting that Apple's platform had faced "several dozen" new threats throughout the year. To calculate the figures, the firm counted unique variants of malware that occurred during the second, third and fourth quarters of 2011.

"We prefer a more conservative approach when counting malware. The more generic and family based, the better," the report noted.

According to the summary, a total of 58 malicious software variants were detected during the period. Trojan-downloaders made up the bulk of the attacks with 29 variants during the period. Backdoor malware was the second-most common with 15 separate instances detected.

The report pointed out that the number of malware attacks remained small when compared to Windows malware, though it did note that last year's number was "definitely something" when compared to the number of Mac threats seen in previous years.

June was the busiest month for Mac malware with 12 known threats, followed by October with 11 instances.

As for the iPhone, iOS remained relatively unaffected by malware last year. Security researchers found Apple's mobile operating system to be untouched last August, even as threats to Google's Android mobile operating system grew rapidly.