In 2006, Apple was quick to respond to the first known virus for Mac OS X, with this commercial:
If you look at the documented history of Mac malware, you’ll see examples of things like malicious links, codecs that “allow” you to watch a video, viruses attached to screensaver download files, viruses disguised as other programs, and so on. But now we have the internet.īrowsers have fairly open access to your computer’s operating system through various permissions, so if viruses and other malware couldn’t get past your Mac’s admin password security checkpoint before, it is much easier for them to do so now by getting you to download something from your browser. Old-school viruses depended on a more physical distribution medium, like a floppy drive. What has changed are viruses and malware and how they are distributed. Macs now are as vulnerable as they were back in the day. They also have tighter default security protocols when it comes to downloading and installing software, requiring you to enter a password before continuing and optionally locking down downloads to only trusted sources, thus making it more difficult for sneaky malicious programs to find a foothold. From the onset, they were usually owned more so by businesses than casual home users. Historically speaking, Macs were thought of as the “safe” operating system.
