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MAC OS X
AND VIRUSES
Many people new to the
Mac and even some who have
used Macs for a long time are
not aware that its operating
system, OS X, is not
succeptible to the plague of
viruses, spyware pop-ups and
other malware that
unfortunate Microsoft Windows
PC users have to put up
with.
We at Right Enterprises are
online via DSL twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a
week and have never used
any anti-virus or
anti-spyware software.
Dozens of Macs come through
here every month and go
online for software
updates. There has never
been a single incidence of
malware infection here on
any Mac running OS X since
its release in 2001. We are
not alone. Nowhere on
planet earth has an OS X
Mac been attacked by a
virus. The reason is
clear... there are
no viruses or spyware
programs capable of
bypassing OS X's solid
security design, so its not
possible to be infected.
Simple, eh?
But you don't have to
take our word for it. Here
are a few far more
qualified
organisations/persons views
on the topic:
etc., etc.
There are many, many more
of the same all over the
web and the number of
articles of this type grows
weekly as more people
become aware of the
facts.
So, to sum up:
-
No,
there are no viruses
that affect Mac OS X.
That’s right,
none, zero, zilch,
ningunos. For the
half-decade that Mac OS
X has been around
(since early 2001),
here are the malware
statistics:
Number of
viruses: 0
Number of
spyware and similar
programs: 0
-
No, you
do not need to run
anti-virus and
anti-spyware software
on your up-to-date Mac
OS X computer. You will
be wasting your money
paying for this
software and its
updates and your Mac
will run slower since
the software will be
wasting processor
cycles looking for
something its not going
to find. The two
exceptions you can
consider
are:
-
If
you’re obsessed
with being a good
internet citizen and
you don’t want
the Windows viruses
that come into your
Mac via e-mail to be
inadvertently passed
onto Windows users.
These Windows-only
viruses are
completely harmless
to your Mac, much
like water on a
duck’s back.
(In my view, since
its their computers
that can be affected,
not yours, and it
would have been one
of theirs that your
Mac received the
virus from, I'd
say let them run the
anti-virus software
and waste their money
and processor cycles,
not yours.)
-
You use
Microsoft Word and
are worried about
Word macro viruses.
Macros are a
“feature”
of Word that allow a
certain amount of
automation to be
programmed into Word
documents.
Unfortunately,
several malicious
macros have been
written over the
years which can
infect new and
existing Word
documents on your
computer and those of
the people you
exchange Word
documents with. After
much research on the
net, to my knowledge,
only Word documents
are affected, so this
is a very limited
risk.
Incidentally, you
might want to bear in
mind that
Symantec’s Norton
Anti-Virus for OS X
actually makes your Mac
more vulnerable to
malicious
attacks:
-
No,
Macs have not had
viruses because
“hardly anybody
uses them”. In
fact, there are
millions of Mac OS X
users and still no OS X
viruses. By contrast, a
pre-release version of
“Vista”
(the next version of
Windows) was
distributed to 10,000
testers in late July
2005 and within eight
days, viruses that
affect it had already
been created:
So why aren’t
there any OS X viruses? Its
because of the
design of OS X. Let
me say that again. Its
because of the
design of OS X. Have
a read of the following
article to learn about how
OS X differs from Windows
in design and maybe
you’ll begin to
understand why its superior
security has nothing to do
with being a small target
to hackers:
In case you don’t
want to read the article
(you really should), let me
sum it up for you in simple
terms. Remember the days
when pirogues were all made
of wood? An essential piece
of equipment for any
maritime adventure in one
of these was a bailing
bucket to remove the
inevitable bilgewater that
would seep in because of
the leaks inherent in its
wooden construction.
Nowadays, pirogues are made
of fibreglass and are
basically leak-proof... no
bailing bucket required.
The hulls of the two
pirogues look the same and
they perform the same
function. The difference
between them is in the way
they are constructed.
In the desktop computer
world, Microsoft Windows is
a wooden pirogue and Mac OS
X is a fibreglass pirogue.
Macs don’t need
Norton Bailing-Bucket.
Their design secures them
from bilgewater
viruses.
Finally, since a picture is
“worth a thousand
words”, here are two
to sum this whole thing
up:
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Windows
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Macintosh
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A last
word:
In these times of the
internet, security should
be taken seriously. I
recommend that you keep
abreast of technology news
and use the following Apple
guidelines:
Gordon Gonsalves,
2006
gordon@rightent.com
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copyright 2006-2007, right enterprises
last updated friday april 27, 2007
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