One Mac in five is infected...

Based on information collected from their antivirus for Mac tools, Sophos has noticed that one Mac computer in five is infected by Windows malware.

Sophos offers a free antivirus for Mac. According to information collected from close to 100 000 Mac computers with this antivirus installed, the British editor has noticed that 20% of all computers are infected by at least one malware.

Infected by Flashback? Not really as it is often Windows malware. There is no risk to the system itself, but instead this is a confirmation that the Mac platform can be used as a relay to help spread Windows malware.

Before the strong media attention given to Flashback, this was one of the biggest positives being pushed by antivirus for Mac editors: avoid transmitting malware to a Windows PC.

It is notably for this reason that enterprises picked up on OS X protection solutions which eradicate malware affecting both systems well before home users.

Despite this, Sophos’ analysis shows that malware targeting OS X was detected on 2.7% of Mac computers – one computer in every thirty-six. For 75% of Mac’s scanned in this study, the infection came from a variant of Flashback.