Spyware - Now a
Problem For Mac Users As Well
by: Jason Frovich
Fortunately for the Mac users, the Adware
and Spyware industry is still, as of 2005,
heavily focused on the PC users. Adware and
Spyware developers are particularly found of
targeting PC users through Dills and ActiveX
controls, and can therefore only attack
computers running Windows. This does not
mean that Mac users are completely blessed
from Spyware and Adware. There are several
Spyware and Adware software capable of
infesting Mac, and every Mac user should
take a look at the Adware and Spyware
removal programs available for Mac. In 2005,
Symantec caused a lot of hullabaloo in the
Macintosh community when they warned the Mac
users about how the OS X operating system
was rapidly becoming a target for virus
developers and hackers. Symantec cautioned
computer users not to relay on their Mac
alone to safe guard them from spyware
infestations. You can no longer assume that
you Mac is immune from viruses and spyware.
The need for free Mac spyware removal
programs available online is growing rapidly
and we will hopefully see a lot of new free
Mac spyware removal programs on the Internet
soon. Since Spyware is still a smaller
problem for Mac users, the number of
available free Mac spyware removal programs
is currently much smaller than the number of
free Spyware removal programs for PC.
When you
choose among the available free Mac spyware
removal programs you should preferably pick
one that is capable of scanning and removing
both spyware and Adware from your Mac. A
high-quality free Mac spyware removal
program will also be able to alert you every
time an attempt to install spyware or Adware
on your Mac is made. You should also ideally
have the option to set the free Mac spyware
removal program to automatically block all
such attempts without bothering you. Some of
the free Mac spyware removal programs will
also protect your Mac from several types of
remote administration type applications. For
maximal protection, you should combine your
free Mac spyware removal program with a good
personal Firewall.
A new Spyware
program designed to attack Mac computers
would probably spread rather slowly, since
only around three per cent of systems in use
today are using Mac OS. If a Mac infected
with spyware, or any other type of Malware,
tries to spread the malicious software to a
new computer, it will find a non-Mac
computer in 97 percent of the time. What
everyone fears is therefore a hybrid Spyware
capable of infecting Mac OS as well as
Microsoft Windows. If, or rather when, such
a hybrid is created it can spread very
rapidly. Since many Mac users still believe
that their Mac is immune to virus and
spyware attacks, a lot of Mac computers will
become infected. All Mac users are therefore
recommended to take advantage of the
available free Mac spyware removal programs
as soon as possible. One such program is
available at
http://macscan.securemac.com/.
When you have
installed your free Mac spyware removal
program, it is also important that you
perform regular updates to make sure that
you are protected from new types of spyware.
Preferably choose a free Mac spyware removal
program that you can set to automatically
search for updates and download them as soon
as they are available. Check the fine print
when you choose your free Mac spyware
removal program. A free Mac spyware removal
program where the regular updates cost a lot
of money will soon turn out to be a very
expensive “free” program. Some free Mac
spyware removal programs do not allow you to
get updates, or will limit the number of
updates, until you have bought a non-free
version of the free Mac spyware removal
program.
