Apple's Macs Hit By Malware; Are iPhones Next?
Apple's computers have been able to avoid most serious hacking attacks, but that era may be over.
As Steve Jobs and his colleagues prepared for this week's developers conference, the company was also taking steps to stop a malware "phishing" program. The ploy, says technology columnist Rich Jaroslovsky of Bloomberg News, uses an infected website to install a piece of software on Apple computers.
The software then pops up a new window, with an urgent message about a security vulnerability. As Jaroslovsky tells NPR's Renee Montagne, the rogue window includes "a scary-sounding message that tells you that your computer is infected, and that you need software to eradicate the infection — and to please give your credit card number." While most people would not be gullible enough to do that, enough users fall for the phishing ploy, often called "scareware," that it can pay off for the perpetrators.
