Despite being widely regarded for their superior defences Macs are more susceptible to attack with Apple 10 years behind Microsoft in terms of online security, an industry expert has suggested.

Speaking in the wake of the recent Flashback attacks which infected some 600,000 Apple branded computers, Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of internet security specialist Kaspersky, has suggested that due to Apple’s lack of experience in the field Macs are to increasingly become the targets of such attacks.

Although long touted as near virus-proof and with Apple’s Macs frequently being regarded as a safer online option that devices running Microsoft’s Windows software, there are now a number of experts suggesting Microsoft is in fact ahead of Apple in terms of web security.

"I think they (Apple) are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security,” Kaspersky said in a recent interview. “For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows.”

He added: "(It's) just a question of time and market share. Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it's not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft's world, Mac. It's full of malware.

"Apple is now entering the same world as Microsoft has been in for more than 10 years: updates, security patches and so on. We now expect to see more and more because cyber criminals learn from success and this was the first successful one."

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Via: TechRadar