What percentage of computer viruses happen on Windows workstations, as
opposed to Mac and Unix-based. (Recent stats = last 2 years or so)
Please also provide percentages of operating system penetration for
comparison.

Hi Jhabley!

What percentage of computer viruses happen on Windows workstations, as
opposed to Mac and Unix-based?

According to mi2g, a London-based company specializing in "digital
risk management," the Mac OS suffered only 31 overt digital attacks,
i.e., 0.05 percent of all attacks in 2002," in spite of the fact that
Apple holds about 3 percent of the global computer market.”

“The report also noted that three other Unix-based platforms -- Linux,
BSD and Solaris -- withstood a combined total of 41 percent of overt
digital attacks logged in 2002. In comparison, 54 percent of all
attacks were directed toward systems running Microsoft

News Factor: November 2002
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19930.html


From an article Viruses and Mac - 'no complacency' dated September 19,
2003 by Jonny Evans:

“Mac users face just 50 recognized viruses today, while PC users have
85,000 threats to their security.”

"Mac users shouldn't be complacent, although there are far fewer
viruses for Mac than PC, they do still exist, but are just not being
written in the same numbers.” (..)

"Virus writers focus on Windows for a number of reasons. It's the
dominant OS – one of the main motives of virus writing seems to be to
infect as many computers as possible, so targeting Windows rather than
Mac makes sense”

Macworld
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?NewsID=6926


Mac OS among least prone to hacker attacks 

“The Mac OS was among the least prone to hacker attack and damage from
viruses and worms in 2002, while Microsoft Windows and Linux were the
most vulnerable, according to a report by technology risk-management
company, mi2g.”

“1,162 software vulnerabilities were recorded during the first 10
months of 2002, and fewer than 25 were attributed to the MacOS. Two
different versions of Unix shared top rankings with the MacOS, with
fewer than 25 vulnerabilities: Compaq's Tru64 and The SCO Group's SCO
Unix.”
 
“Microsoft Windows accounted for the majority of vulnerabilities, with
more than 500. Linux came next, with more then 200.”

Mac News Network: November 1, 2002 
http://www.macnn.com/news/17191&startNumber=1


Operating system penetration:
 

“When it comes to operating systems, Microsoft has become the clear
leader in terms of market penetration. Most accounts figure that MS
Windows or other MS operating systems are installed on nearly 85% of
the computers worldwide.”

“Apple Computers Mac OS still maintains about 6 – 10% of the operating
system market.”

“Another serious alternative to Windows is the Linux operating
system.”

“Linux web servers are quickly stealing Microsoft’s market share as
more companies find success and cost savings with Linux
implementations. Estimates are that as many as 30% or more of the web
servers connected to the web are now running some form of Linux.”

Market Leap  
http://www.marketleap.com/report/ml_report_15.htm



OS Market Share: Microsoft Stomps the Competition by Paul Thurrott

“According to the report, "Worldwide Client and Server Operating
Environment Market Forecast and Analysis, 2002-2007," Windows desktop
OS sales worldwide increased from 93.2 percent of the market in 2001
to 93.8 percent in 2002, accounting for more than $9.75 billion in
sales. Various Mac OS versions stalled in second place, with just 2.9
percent of the market (and 2.2 percent of the revenues), although IDC
noted that Apple will soon relinquish second place to Linux, which saw
desktop growth in 2002 to 2.3 percent of the market. All told, 121
million client OSs shipped in 2002, IDC says; about 113 million were
XP, 3.5 million were Mac OS, and 2.9 million were Linux.”

“The server side of the equation also has an interesting breakdown. In
2002, Windows Server products owned 55.1 percent of the market, from a
unit-shipment standpoint, up from 50.5 percent in 2001. Second-place
Linux accounted for 23.1 percent of new shipments, up from 22.4
percent in 2001. Only Windows and Linux saw growth in 2002. Combined,
all UNIX OS versions declined 8.9 percent year over year; Novell
NetWare fell 12.4 percent.”

Windows & .NET Magazine Network: October 2003  
http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/40481/40481.html


“Apple has seen its share of the overall operating system market slide
in recent years as Linux gains popularity. IDC estimates that the
market share for Mac OS dropped to 3.1 percent in 2001 from 4.6
percent two years earlier. Windows, in contrast, has more than 90
percent market share.”
ZDNet
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-978408.html


Search Criteria: 
OS market share
Virus attacks by OS


I hope you find this helpful!


Best Regards,
Bobbie7-ga

Hi,

The New York Times reported last week that OS X, the new Mac OS, has
had no viruses written for it in its three years of existence:
"Macintosh fans...have watched the tribulations of the much larger
Windows population with mixed feelings -- sympathy, relief, even
amusement -- because their operating system, Mac OS X, is so far 100
percent virus-free."
(http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/23/technology/circuits/23stat.html)

Yes, there are viruses that have been written for the Mac platform,
but, as bobby7 pointed out, they're few and far between. In all my
years using a Mac, I've never come across one, and I download lots of
stuff from the web and get many files from clients. Still, just to be
safe, I keep antivirus software on my computer. I keep it updated and
have it scan all my incoming files.

So if the NY Times is right, I wonder if the Mac-based viruses bobby7
referred to are for the old Mac OS--the classic Mac OS, which includes
versions of the OS through 9.x (OS X is really version 10). Most Macs
still run an older OS; the machine I'm using right now is a good
example. So it's possible that the 31 overt Mac attacks could have all
targeted the older OS. (And until early this year new Macs gave users
a choice of booting into the OS Classic or OS X. Many Mac people who
didn't want to learn OS X chose to stick with their tried-and-true
classic OS.)

The NY Times said in the same article, "And because Mac OS X comes
with less of its plumbing exposed to the Internet than Windows,
hackers are a far more distant worry." That's good news to me, since
I'll be getting a new computer early next year and will make the
switch to OS X. I'll still keep good antivirus software on it, though,
just in case. If I didn't, you know Murphy's Law...

dtc

You have to remember, in your question, you asked about Windows, Mac
and Unix-based machines. However, with the coming of Mac OS X,
Macintosh machines are now all unix based (based on a freebsd kernel).
So, security attacks on unix based systems will now often often apply to mac os x.
Unix based machines are generally regarded as much more secure than
Microsoft Operating Systems.

Hope this sheds some light on the topic..