Apple begins recommending Antivirus utilities to users

Software

It looks like the care free days when Mac owners could sit back and relax without having to worry about malware are indeed coming to an end – maybe. Last month we told you about two new pieces of OS X malware that had been discovered and while neither poses a significant threat in most people’s eyes, it is clearly a sign of things to come. As loyal and vocal as Mac computer users are, until recently they hardly represented a significant portion of the market. As such, those responsible for creating end user-targeted malware focused on Windows since it was the clear and overwhelming market leader. Now that Apple’s computer market share is growing however, Mac user complacency with regards to viruses might lead to some big and easy scores for malware. Apple recently posted the following technical note as a result:

Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.

The page goes on to recommend three antivirus solutions for OS X, two of which are offered for sale in the Apple Online Store. For the time being, we still haven’t heard any reported cases of a virus actually finding its way to a Mac computer in a real life situation so the following question is posed: Has Apple just firmed up its deals with antivirus providers or are we really in store for a hail storm of Mac malware sooner than we think? In either case, at least we won’t be seeing the commercial above air again any time soon.

[Via Newlaunches]

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27 Comments
  • http://www.k5live.com Likeabite

    @ ND It couldn’t be 18 months old if it was from last summer and it is news now because Apple’s marketshare in the computer world just increased. This should make hackers and coders more apt to develop viruses and malware for the system.

  • ND

    Do your homework!

    It was worded in a similar manner last summer. It was essentially copied into a new Support article that was recently released. Same idea in a new release.

    Check out

    TUAW.com

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