Mac and Android Users Beware: The Malware is Coming For You!

As we would expect with new operating systems or with old ones becoming more popular there is a rise in the various types of malware aimed at Macs and systems running Google‘s Android. It isn’t that these systems are more vulnerable than our leaky PCs, they’re not, but rather that with the rise in population of them they are becoming a more tempting target for malware writers.Click Here!
McAfee gives some of the details in its threat report for the first quarter 2012.

This quarter we report a large increase in mobile malware. The jump was targeted almost solely at the Android platform. Hundreds of Android threats in the middle of 2011 have moved into the thousands
this year. Due to significant improvements in our ability to collect, process, and detect mobile malware, the count further accelerated this quarter: Android threats now reach almost 7,000, with more than 8,000 total mobile malware in our database.

Given the popularity of Apple‘s iOS there will certainly be attempts to produce malware for that OS. It is rather more difficult to do so however. And Macs are also seeing a surge in activity:

Malware for Apple’s Mac continues to show consistent growth. As always, malware on the Mac appears relatively tame when compared with PC malware, but malware can be written for any operating system and platform. All users must take precautions.

Sure, it’s hundreds of new pieces of malware per quarter rather than the thousands (tens of thousands?) that affect PCs but it is something that Mac users need to be careful of.
Those Android malware attempts tend to come inside apps: there have been a few cases where they have been found inside the Google Store. But the vast majority come from other, less rigorously overlooked, stores and so the general advice is to be careful who you