For years, one of the touted advantages of being a Mac user was that you didn't have to worry (as much) about issues like malware. It's not necessarily that the Mac OS was impervious to malware, but rather that the Windows platform, with over 90% of the market, made for a much more attractive target.

Last week, history repeated itself when Yahoo ads served across Europe were found to contain malware. In addressing the issue, Yahoo issued a statement today explaining what happened and noting that Mac users were not affected.

At Yahoo, we take the safety and privacy of our users seriously. From December 31 to January 3 on our European sites, we served some advertisements that did not meet our editorial guidelines -- specifically, they spread malware. On January 3, we removed these advertisements from our European sites. Users in North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America were not served these advertisements and were not affected. Additionally, users using Macs and mobile devices were not affected. We will continue to monitor and block any advertisements being used for this activity. We will post more information for our users shortly.

Truth be told, sometimes it pays to be small player.

As for who was behind the malware, investigator still aren't entirely sure. They do, however, believe it was financially motiviated.

Today, though the Mac has gained in popularity, it still trails far behind Windows. Say what you will about Microsoft's inability to cash in on anything mobile, but the company's Windows monopoly remains very much intact with various iterations of Windows accounting for a 90.6% share of the desktop OS market.