Apple Suggests Antivirus For Mac

Macs are vulnerable to malware? Say it ain’t so! (ok, in case it was missed I’m being sarcastic)

From Washington Post:

In a notable shift, Apple is now recommending that Mac users install anti-virus software to help users secure their systems.

In a technical note quietly published to its support site on Nov. 21, Apple issued the following advice:

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

This is news to me. Just under three months ago, I asked an employee at our local Apple store whether I needed anti-virus for my MacBook, and was told not to bother, that it was not necessary.

Even if it was nothing more than a malware that happened to be stored on a Mac its enough to warrant a check. Antivirus software is not the ‘be all’ but, it’s a damn sight better than none at all. The fact that Apple has suggested the use is just prudence. No operating system is 100% secure and they won’t be any time soon.

I had a similar encounter to Brian Krebs, when I got my Macbook, with an Apple store employee where I was told that “antivirus isn’t necessary on a Mac”. Hmm.

So, you can look at it like this. You can use security on your systems or you can drink the $VENDOR koolaid of your choice.

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Posted by Dave Lewis on December 1, 2008. Filed under Malware,Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.