Apple Suggest an Antivirus Software

December 2008

Apple quietly recommends using antivirus software. Apple, which has long perpetuated the belief that its operating system is immune to security problems, is recommending that users install security software to make it harder for hackers to target its platform. “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,” according to a support note posted last month. Data by computer security researchers has shown that while Apple has not been affected by malicious software nearly to the extent as Windows, it is merely because hackers go after the most widely used platform. Apple is gaining market share, however, which means hackers could increasingly look to exploit the platform, particularly if it becomes perceived as an easier target. Apple systems are also not immune from problems in third-party software, such as plug-ins, which are used to view animated Flash graphics and PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Security problems in plug-ins have frequently been manipulated to cause browsers to redirect to malicious Web sites, which are rigged to try and take advantage of browser flaws. Compared to Windows, there are not nearly as many antivirus products for Apple computers.