Until recently, MacIntosh computer users have long enjoyed relative freedom from hacker attacks; however, Symantec says online criminals are now setting their sites on Mac users.
Online porn hunters are the latest target. Visitors to porn sites are led to believe they can download a free video player when in fact they are installing malicious code onto their Macs.
Once the users authorize the transaction, the hackers can redirect the users future browsing to fraudulent web sites and possibly steal the user’s information or passwords.
Sometimes they simply send ads for other pornographic websites. This results in thousands of dollars in income for the criminals.
While common thinking is that Macs are essentially more secure than PCs, security experts argue differently. They believe Macs are no more secure than PCs, and that the relatively low number of viruses, exploits and other cyber attacks directed at Mac users is due to Apple’s relatively small share of the computer market.
With that said, the fact remains that for every single attack on a Mac, there are at least 100 attacks on Windows-based systems.