First published: 31st December 2007
F-Secure has released its threat summary for the second half of 2007, leading with the headline that the estimates of the number of types of malware detected have doubled during the year, "What previously took twenty years to accumulate — was now accumulated in just one year". There are now about half a million types of malware, and the numbers will continue rising.
Also in the same summary, F-Secure discusses a significant increase in the threat to Mac users, noting, "Apple Mac's market share is now significant enough for the Zlob parasites to target, as malware gangs don't make an effort to develop something without the promise of a profitable return."
The summary has been widely reported, including by Kevin Allison in the Financial Times, who wrote with the title Macs attacked. The security newsletter CyTRAP Labs - EU-IST - InfoSec news has attacked the F-Secure summary and the F.T. report as silly statistics to get the media attention, citing the poor, unexplained methodology.
Poor methodology would be a concern if the report was a reviewed scientific study, however, it is a summary of what the vendor's lab has seen, more like Police statistics of the number of reported burglaries than a scientific study. The discussion of Mac malware is not emphasised in the summary, one can imagine that Mac users would be rightly concerned if security vendors were ignoring a notable threat to their systems, and the fact that criminals are addressing the growth in Mac users is certainly a notable threat, even though it is at a much lower level than the current threat to PC systems. The choice of the F.T. reporter to put "Mac" in his headline is entirely his choice.