Washington Post: Flashback trojan shows Macs do get viruses

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By Hayley Tsukayama
April 9, 2012

For years, Mac users have been able to believe that they are safer than the average computer user and turned their noses up at antivirus software. But as Apple's market share has grown, so has the threat to Mac users' security.

Last week, a Russian-based security company called Dr. Web reported that up to 600,000 Macs appeared to be part of a growing botnet, mostly in the United States and in Canada. Security researchers are referring to the virus as Flashback.

Mike Geide, a senior security researcher at ZScaler, said that while he can’t confirm Dr. Web’s numbers, the conditions sound right for a malware problem of that scale. The virus should be a wake-up call to those who still think that their Mac is invulnerable to attacks like this, he said.

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