Apple’s been taking a fair amount of heat over security on OS X, due to recent concerns over the Flashback trojan that affected 600,000 Macs, a FileVault security hole, and other issues. While many of these concerns may not directly be due to security issues with OS X, digital security firm Kaspersky has been invited by Apple to analyze the security of OS X to identify areas for improvement.
Computing.co.uk reports (via MacRumors):
Speaking exclusively to Computing, Kaspersky CTO Nikolai Grebennikov said his firm had recently begun the process of analysing the Mac OS platform at Apple’s request.
“Mac OS is really vulnerable,” he claimed, “and Apple recently invited us to improve its security. We’ve begun an analysis of its vulnerabilities, and the malware targeting it,” said Grebennikov.
Grebennikov feels that Apple does not take security seriously enough, and hopes that he’ll be able to work with Apple to increase their attention to security and significantly improve the safety and security of their desktop platform.
Interestingly, the Kaspersky CEO also suggests that it is only a matter of time before malware begins showing up on iOS devices. iOS has so far been an extremely safe platform, in comparison to Android, which has been heavily criticized for malware and security issues.
Update: Kaspersky has responded claiming that the magazine took their statement out of context, and that they are not working with Apple to evaluate OS X security (although they are evaluating it on their own).
Judging by the statement (a direct quotation) seen above, I don’t see how context can really be an issue. Kaspersky seems to have clearly stated “Apple recently invited us to improve its security.” Translation: Kaspersky lied. They have a great deal to gain by pointing out these vulberabilities, since they sell security software meant to protect users against security threats.
Shameful.
You can see Kaspersky’s entire response over at Engadget.