Tech Busters: Settling the Myth on Apple Devices and Viruses
Since the dawn of the personal computer, there has always been the age old debate of Mac vs. PC. In the early 2000’s, Apple even took this debate and turned it into an ad for their MacBook. Apple touts their computers are faster, sleeker, sexier, and don’t get viruses. Wait a minute. Apple devices are not prone to getting malware? Well if that were the case decades ago, it certainly doesn’t hold true today.
The truth is Apple is in the top 5 for computer shipments globally. According to a study by the research firm Gartner, Apple ships close to 20 million Mac devices annually. That is a large group of devices running OSX. Additionally, if I were to think like a hacker, I would want to target as many devices as possible. This logical thinking has led to numerous variants of malware being developed for Macs. Still don’t believe me? Well, Trend Micro has a nifty threat Encyclopedia that catalogs known malware for various operating systems. In short, no device is immune to the threat of being targeted by malware.
On another note, it is also a myth that anti-virus is only for Windows computers. Anti-virus solutions such as Avast and Symantec Endpoint Protection are available for all platforms, including most versions of Linux. Besides, if Mac computers don’t get malware, then why are these companies releasing their security solutions for them? It would be more prudent to say that Macs have a lower risk of becoming infected due to the lower footprint that exist on the Internet.
I realize that my argument may not be convincing which is why I am going to settle this debate in true MythBusters style. I will take an old copy of Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard (End-of-Life), and install it on my VirtualBox lab to test whether it can become infected from general use. As an added bonus, I will demonstrate how to properly remove a virus from the Mac should it confirm my first myth.
With the virtual Mac environment spun up, I set out to surf the web with reckless abandon, in hopes of having a malicious download find its way onto my computer. Now I’d love to say it didn’t take long to get infected, but truthfully I wasn’t able to get a Trojan to appear so I could download it onto my system. Due to my impatience, I decided to intentionally download a known virus called MacDefender onto my computer. What MacDefender does is pretend to act as a security software. It bypasses the application security settings on Apple devices and then initiates a system scan. The scan itself is fake, but it will then immediately say it found a large number of viruses on your computer. This is what my screen looked like when it completed:
As you can see, the malware wants to “help” by cleaning up all these issues. However, it stops short of that by asking you to register. Those that fall prey end up entering in their email, a password, and their credit card details. The reality is the malware is forwarding that information to the hacker.
After completing the registration, I was able to click on cleanup. What it was actually doing was creating processes that further infected the machine. I noticed my performance begin to slow down as a result. Ultimately, I was able to prove that the Mac VM could contract a virus contrary to previous advertisement claims.
To go deeper, I now need to remove the malware. These directions will also help should anybody become a victim of malware on current Mac operating systems. To accomplish this, follow the listed steps in order:
In summary, I must say that Apple devices are incredibly resilient. While Windows operating systems will often become corrupt and require a fresh installation to fix, Macintosh was able to heal itself after I removed the offending software and rebooted. Nevertheless, it appears that this myth has been officially busted. The Mac VM was able to contract a virus, but I was also able to effectively remove it.
I hope you all enjoyed this proof of concept I put together. Please let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this walk through lab of solving a common misconception in IT. If this is something you would like to seeing going forward, I will start a series on more Tech Myths.
Tech Busters: Settling the Myth on Apple Devices and Viruses
Research & References of Tech Busters: Settling the Myth on Apple Devices and Viruses|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
Source
0 Comments