The U.K. tech site Computing that Kaspersky Chief Technology Officer Nikolai Grebennikov said in an interview that the company was doing a security analysis for Apple.

"Mac OS is really vulnerable," he was quoted as saying, "and Apple recently invited us to improve its security. We've begun an analysis of its vulnerabilities, and the malware targeting it."

However, Kaspersky says Grebinnikov was misquoted. The CTO issued a statement saying that the company is conducting an "in-depth analysis of Mac OS X vulnerabilities and new forms of malware" to share with its customers, but not at the request of Apple.

"This security analysis of Mac OS X was conducted independently of Apple; however, Apple is open to collaborating with us regarding new Mac OS X vulnerabilities and malware that we identify during our analysis," Grebinnikov said.