Macs increasingly targeted as original malware detections hit two a second

A report into online security activity in the first half of the year has shown unprecedented malware generation rates, and a rise in attacks on Mac systems.

Overall malware generation rates grew by 60 per cent to over 150,000 a day, while 19,000 web sites containing malicious code were detected and blocked, accounting for 30 per cent of activity.

In the latter case, four out of five were legitimate sites that had been hacked and subverted. Over a third were hosted in the US, ahead of the Russian Federation at 13 per cent.

Malicious web sites are also drawing traffic using search engine optimisation techniques, typically centred around breaking current events stories. These sites  try to socially engineer a malware download or get in via an unpatched browser.

Such pages also make up an increasing proportion of spam content, as the use of attached .exe applications falls.

However, such applications are increasingly being used in highly targeted 'spear phishing' attacks. Asia produced around 40 per cent of global spam, ahead of the EU at 29 per cent and the US at 16 per cent.

Attacks on Apple Macintosh users have grown in the past six months, primarily via the Mac Defender fake security software scam.

Mac Defender used a flaw in Apple's operating system to display pornography and then offer software for its removal. Apple's initial attempts to block the code were bypassed, but the problem now appears to have been fixed.

"What's not clear at this point is how lucrative the attack was," Richard Wang, manager at Sophos Labs, told V3.

"If there was no real difference between the response rate of Apple users and PC users the attacks may not be worthwhile. These people follow the money."

More attacks on Apple are expected to emerge, possibly on the iOS platform, but Android is the biggest security concern when it comes to mobile computing.