The Channel Wire

December 02, 2008

The notion that malicious viruses only affect Windows-based machines has officially been put to bed by Apple. On a post to the Apple Support Website in late November, the Mac manufacturer quietly suggested that Apple customers should begin looking into antivirus measures for their machines.

It appears that Apple and the Jobs crew are no longer safe from attack, a sea change to a commonly held perception that Mac OSes and software were largely safe from spyware, viruses and other forms of malicious code.

The Apple Support site states: "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 site also notes that consumer software and Mac OS are the likely culprits from what appears to be a propagation of Apple-centric viruses. Apple recommends three specific utilities that users should consider: Intego VirusBarrier X5, Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.

It almost seems strange that Apple machines and software were largely spared from the rising tide of malicious hacks and spyware that has been circulating on the Net for so long. Still, Apple had a long and mostly virus-free run, starting with its debut back in the '80s.

It might be going too far to say that Apple machines and software were never affected by viruses before now. But this is the first time the company has had to publicly announce to its rabid fan base that adding antivirus utilities isn't only a good idea, but something that most customers should pursue.