“Academic proofs of concept and theoretical vulnerabilities don’t count. Neither do computer worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, spam or any of the other nasty species in the zoology of malware,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
“The issue comes up anew because Apple’s latest Get a Mac ads are once again hammering PC for those “thousands of viruses” to which Microsoft operating systems and application suites are heir. And that, in turn, has led to a resurgence of comments in this space to the effect that a) Macs are just as vulnerable as PCs and b) the only thing that protects them is their miniscule market share,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “Those ideas, while widely promulgated on the Web, are wrong.”
Elmer-DeWitt reports, “The fact that Mac OS X represents less than 4% of the worldwide installed base of computers might explain why there are fewer Mac viruses. But it wouldn’t explain why there are none.”
MacDailyNews Take: This sounds sooo familiar… 
Elmer-DeWitt continues, “There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of PC viruses (see partial list), a handful of Mac OS 9 viruses, and not one for Mac OS X.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
Related article:
FUD Alert: CNET spews ‘Snow Leopard could level security playing field with Windows’ lunacy – September 01, 2009
Ooh, big scary ‘Mac flaw’ could let hackers get scrambled data – July 30, 2009
FOXNews blows it: Incorrectly reports that Apple encourages multiple antivirus utilities for Mac – April 28, 2009
CNN blows it; gets all worked up about a Mac Trojan that isn’t the first nor is it the last – April 23, 2009
NY Times blows it: repeats ‘Security via Obscurity’ myth – April 08, 2009
Get a Mac: Microsoft’s Windows’ swiss cheese insecurity costs $100 billion annually – December 06, 2008
Yet another Windows worm builds yet another massive criminal botnet, global threat – December 03, 2008
Apple pulls ‘old and inaccurate’ antivirus support article; says ‘Macs are secure right out of box’ – December 03, 2008
Mossberg: Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard faster, better, far less prone to malware than Windows Vista – April 09, 2008
Mac trojan makers churn out slightly modified versions to evade anti-malware detection – November 08, 2007
Lack of Apple Mac malware baffles expert – March 21, 2007
Sophos: Apple Mac OS X’s security record unscathed; Windows Vista malware just a matter of time – July 07, 2006
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003
Finally! Mainstream media is starting to report this. It’s about time….
Must have something to do with our Superior DNA Genetic Code
Hell, don’t even have to wear a “raincoat”
If ya know what I mean …
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BC
*GASP*
Someone in the “mainstream press” who actually understands that viruses and trojans are completely different things!
…because GOD is Mac user.
Remember, Mac spelled backwards is caM.
Damn you DreamTheEndless
“It’s about time”
Yea, and if I’d not lolly-gaggled for that extra minute
Then would been ME got First Post™
Boo Hoo Hoo … I never get Firsties …
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BC
Technically, mac users should be the easier target. No mac users are using anti-virus, so why doesn’t go for a target that is not protected?
Holy crap!!! A coherent article on the lack of malware for OS X!
Satan must be putting on a sweater right now.
Someone explain what the difference is between a
Virus
Trojan Horse
Worm
bioness,
And, let’s not forget that the first person to write a successful OS X virus will be considered a GOD in the hacker community.
There are Mac OS X viruses. Scads of them lie waiting in the shadows ready to jump you the second you let your guard down. Don’t shine lights in their eyes. Don’t feed them after midnight. And don’t get them wet!
(Oh wait, I think that’s Gremlins.)
The tide is turning. The future is bright!
When people ask me if I can get rid of a virus on there PC, I only shrug and tell them to get a Mac. If you are not computer savvy enough to keep your antivirus software up to date, and the procedure to clean a problem, you should get a Mac. Then you just use your computer.
As I always say a virus designer would get just so much street cred’ to be the first to create a true Mac virus rather than just one of thousands who propagate PC ones. One might just think that might appeal to their ego.
The UNIX underpinnings of Mac OSX is the primary reason why there are no viruses for the Mac. In order for a virus to infiltrate and take over a system it has to have super user privileges. This means a virus must enter a user name and password to even gain system access and must then enter the root cmd system to change it’s status to a superuser to corrupt and take over a Mac system. Only a Trojan could possibly infect a Mac system and that would be by tricking the user into upgrading it’s status.
They report this because Windows 7 is about to level the playing field!
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Once again, Apple is running scared!
But seriously folks, I agree with spyinthesky, these folks live off fame – while I am sure that there is some money to be made in virus development (sabotage, maybe? Stealing personal data?) – I doubt that hackers are in this for the money. You just can’t tell me that they haven’t tried hard to put a virus out there on the Mac. ESPECIALLY now that Apple is flaunting it so.
Nope, if they could have, they would have.
Is there a way to tell if something (attachment, ect) you receive contains a virus? so you can make sure you do not pass it on? and what do you do, trash can it ?
I had something to say … but half a dozen people said pretty much the same thing already. Oh, well … carry on.
None on OS X. None on Linux. None on FreeBSD. None on OpenBSD. None on NetBSD. None on Solaris. What do all these have in common? They are all Unix or Unix-like OS’s. What OS is not built on a Unix architecture? Windows.
If computer viruses were insects:
Living with Windows is like living in a house that you have to fumigate every week to keep the cockroaches out of the cupboards.
Living with Mac OS X is like living in a house where you might find one dead gnat on the window sill every five years.
I’ve said it before, do you honestly think someone out there wouldn’t be happy to put all the smug Mac users in their place and write OSX viruses even if it wasn’t for monetary gain?
These guys do it for ego just as much as ‘profit’ so why haven’t we seen this happen yet?
It bugs me when people say you should have anti-virus software “just in case” and to protect other machines.
Here is the reality that most anti virus companies don’t want you to know. Most anti virus software is useless against stopping the spread of virii. The very simple reason is that they are only effective against known problems and are useless against new attacks.
I’ve worked in large corporate IT departments where the PCs were updated constantly with new virus definitions, we had scanners on the email, basically anything you can think of. Still, new waves of virii just walked right on through.
Meanwhile, the user’s PC are crawling under the burden of the the anti virus software and the constant monitoring.
Well… If you don’t want to risk unknowingly passing Windows viruses on to your Windows sufferer friends, then get some Mac anti-virus software. That’s the only… Tenuously… Legitimate use for it.
But why should OS X have to play nursemaid to Redmond’s disfigured baby, anyway? If someone bought a PC, just let them reap what they sow.
bioness writes, “Technically, mac users should be the easier target. No mac users are using anti-virus, so why doesn’t go for a target that is not protected?”
When I was transferred to support the Research section of a major office of the US Treasury, my first task was to help the few Mac users get the “required” anti-virus software. (They’d had no luck getting it through the software distribution office.) Within a few days, I had it. Within another year or two, we all stopped using it. We didn’t tell anyone; they wouldn’t understand.
I agree that there are wrong assumptions being propagated regarding this subject, but I see MDN didn’t quote the end of the article:
“That said, if the built-in anti-virus protection in Windows 7 is as good as some earlier reviewers suggest. the security gap could close when Microsoft’s new system finally launches it next month.
Which may be why Apple is hammering home the “thousands of viruses” message now.”
If Win7 does close this gap, there’s one more thing to check off of the Apple bullet list. I’m sure MDN will not talk about or link to stories about that though.
And before someone asks: UNIX was originally built as a networking operating system, so security is at its core. Windows was built as a desktop system, with the assumption that if you can access it, you own it. Layers of security ‘enhancements’ cannot undo this core weakness of Windows. Microsoft simply has to do what Apple did: trash the old code and start from scratch.