Apple admits it – Macs aren’t immune to viruses

Apple previously claimed on its website that the Mac ‘doesn’t get PC viruses’ and told owners they could ‘safeguard your data, by doing nothing’. ‘A Mac isn’t susceptible to the thousands of viruses plaguing Windows-based computers’, the website also boasted.

For years Apple owners have been the ‘smug marrieds’ when it comes to security threats, and it is true that Macs have been less prone to malware than Windows-based PCs. But that situation has changed.

Flashback botnet changed the landscape

In April of this year the Flashback botnet infected over 600,000 Macintosh computers. Like Windows viruses before it, the botnet infected computers and lay in wait to steal sensitive information, such as passwords.

Since then the anti-virus firm Sophos has revealed that one in every five Mac computers is harbouring malware. The company took a snapshot of 100,000 Macs and found 20% of them were infected with some kind of Windows malware, which while not harmful to Macs could be passed on to and cause damage to Windows-based machines.

Sophos also found that 2.7% of Macs were infected with Mac OS X malware.

While Flashback drove a seismic shift in attitude, the change has been a long time coming. As Sophos wrote in its 2012 Security Threat report:

‘In 2011, the emergence of malware for the Mac upstaged Windows malware. There’s no doubt that the Windows malware problem is much larger than the Mac threat, but the events of 2011 show Mac users that the malware threat is genuine.’

Anti-virus protection for Apple Macs

Apple’s Mac OS X operating system claims to offer anti-virus protection. But, that protection is – again according to Sophos – limited.

It’s time Apple customers woke up to the threat of malware. However, I hope they’ll learn from the experience of Windows’ customers that it isn’t necessary to overload machines with sluggish anti-virus software in order to be safe. Equally, they should be wary of paid-for software that charges renewal costs automatically.

Apple’s new marketing message now says that the Mac is ‘built to be safe’ and ‘Safety. Built in’.

It may have safety built-in, but the best defence for Mac owners is the realisation that they aren’t as safe as they once thought.

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