Hackers increasingly targeting Apple computers

Computer viruses, trojans and malware attacks are skyrocketing.

BY JIM CROSS

Sep 5, 2012, 6:51 AM Updated: 6:51 am

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TEMPE, Ariz. — Computer viruses, trojans and malware attacks are skyrocketing.

Windows PCs have been the main target of hackers but Apple computers are becoming more popular.

Ken Moskowitz with the Data Doctors said Mac owners have had the false notion that they were beyond the reach of hackers.

“The guys who write this bad software say, ‘Hey, we have a new opportunity,’ ” he said. “They’ve always been vulnerable but the bad guys weren’t writing software to attack and now they are.”

Apple and its users got a dose of reality earlier this year. The company claimed Macs didn’t get viruses, then the Flashback virus changed that. Moscowitz said there is antivirus software to protect a Mac, but no computer is 100 percent invulnerable.

“It’s really the way you use your device, what you do and where you go,” he said. “If you’re going to sites that could potentially open you up, user habits really determine what happens.”

Moscowitz recommends Trend Micro antivirus software for Macs.

McAfee said it found 8 million new types of malware in the second quarter this year, up 23 percent from the first quarter.