IT security has been considered a growing threat in all of its incarnations for some time now. Not only are there plenty of cybercriminals poised to snatch data and cash from inadequately secured businesses, there is also a growing trend of cyber espionage that sees governments developing tools to gather sensitive data relating to infrastructures, weaponry and procedures.
According to pretty much every study carried out over the past few years, it's not getting any better and security experts are losing the war. This has been very apparent this past week as Macs are proving to be the latest target for botmasters and malware authors.
However, although this raises some questions on whether iPads will be next, the biggest worry for AV specialists is the growing trend in attacks on smartphones. As the devices continue to enjoy huge success, it's natural that they will become even bigger targets.
Whilst many could have avoided the problems experienced by Android by simply sticking with Apple products, the attacks on the Mac OS have proved that there's no such thing as a safe platform.
Indeed, some reports have compared the Flashback botnet to Conficker, as if you look at it in relative terms then Flashback could be viewed as being as large as Conficker due to the number of Macs it's infected.
The only answer for enterprises and individuals alike is to wake up and put strong security policies in place, especially when it comes to connected devices and the cloud.