Mac's Getting Viruses? I'm afraid so.

For years, Mac owners have watched Windows users struggle with viruses and spyware. Mac owners laughed at Windows users. Apple even released commercials to this effect. You see, Macs were free from the malware, spyware and viruses that have plagued Windows users.

Note that I used past tense. Those days are over. If you own a Mac, you are now being targeted by the online miscreants and criminals.

There is no magical feature that makes Macs impervious to online threats.

Malware developers have traditionally targeted Windows purely for economic reasons. Windows is the dominant operating system. There are more people using Windows than Macs. A virus written for Windows will affect more machines, which means greater profits. With such a small Market share, it didn't make sense to develop viruses for a computer less than 10% of the world was using.

Back in 2008, a researcher made an interesting prediction: Attackers would target the Mac when its market share reached 16 percent. The Mac's market share is currently around 16 percent in the United States and Canada. Lo and behold, we're starting to see malware targeting Macs.

Criminals have released a kit for creating malware that targets Mac OS X. MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity are the first programs to come out of this kit. But they certainly won't be the last.

In fact, just yesterday, the MacDefender creators released a variant called MacGuard.

MacDefender is the first example of rogueware to appear on a Mac. Rogueware, or scareware, is fake antivirus that claims your computer is infected. These programs have been affecting Windows users for years.

Clicking a malicious Web link can infect your machine with MacDefender. Hackers like using links that look like popular news stories. They also push infected images in Google's Image Search.

Clicking a bad link or photo takes you to a malicious website. Clicking any link on the site downloads MacDefender.

There are some ways you can stay safe. Only click on links from legitimate websites. If you find yourself on a suspicious-looking site, leave without clicking anything.

Apple's Mac computers are a brilliant blend of style and function. If you're in the market for a new computer, definitely consider one. But keep me mind the advantage that Mac's used to have over PC's of being virus and spyware free no longer applies, it's a fair playing field now. See Last weeks article for more great Mac Vs. PC in the business world discussion.