Trusted
freitasm: No, it's not. But Mac OS X marketshare has been growing at a much faster pace now, so it's more likely if affects a large number of users.
I don't think OS X is growing particularly quickly, at least relative to the rest of the computer OS market. Apple had a 4.84% worldwide market share in April 2009 and that had increased to 5.0% in April this year. That's not to say that Apple's not selling a lot of PCs, because they obviously are. It's just not growing at the rate the tech media seems to believe.
The numbers are out there to show the real state of affairs from research companies like IDG and Gartner but for whatever reason, a number of pundits like to pump Apple's sales performance irrespective of the reality.
(I note that recently, some well-known Apple-friendly bloggers have taken to including iPads and iPod Touches in their tally to make the Apple computer total look better. As long as they don't double-dip by including those same iPods and iPads in their mobile device tally as well. :D )
My theory, for what it's worth, is that Apple's market share has grown significantly in the well-to-do nations (while dropping in the poorer nations) and that more affluent skew has become a somewhat more tempting target for the unscrupulous.
I have a feeling that those with a rational mindset will agree that there's worse to come, no matter what Apple does to try and stem it. The fact that the techniques being used today could have been used from the very beginnings of OS X shows clearly that the OS has never deserved the rep it's enjoyed that it was somehow more secure through design. Obscurity, much poo-poohed by the Apple fans though it was, seems now to have been a significant reason for the rarity of such malware attacks.
Time to tighten down my Macs' security, I think.
Cheers,
R2D2
