-- Posted by look over here at 8:22 pm on April 6, 2009 Is it really that much harder for a Mac to get a virus than a PC? -- Posted by Neodymie at 8:22 pm on April 6, 2009 No, it's not really any harder. No one makes virus's to affect ten people though. -- Posted by A r c a d i a at 8:23 pm on April 6, 2009 My friend claims that there is only 1 virus that can even access a mac. I don't know how true that is. -- Posted by Yo Quiero un Burrito at 8:23 pm on April 6, 2009 It's not that it's harder necessarily, it's that the userbase is so much smaller there are just less attacks. -- Posted by Clara Bell at 8:23 pm on April 6, 2009 I think it's just that most viruses are made for PCs. -- Posted by cyanotype at 8:23 pm on April 6, 2009 It's a lot harder for Macs to get viruses, period. I'm not saying it doesn't happen ever, it just doesn't happen often. -- Posted by espresso8097 at 8:25 pm on April 6, 2009 More people use Windows, thus Windows is targeted more.  If someone really wanted to make stuff for OS X it would not be that hard.  If they know how to make it work in Linux (BSD is actually closer, but for a broad example), it would not be hard to port it over. -- Posted by GaelicFreak at 8:26 pm on April 6, 2009 My brother's downloaded tons of shady shit and we haven't gotten a virus yet. So it's pretty hard. -- Posted by Mikoto at 7:52 pm on April 7, 2009 Ive never had a virus on my mac, and I've never installed any anti-virus software or run any tests. I don't miss having to run tests all the time and have shitloads of software installed. :) -- Posted by Sector Corrupt at 12:47 pm on April 8, 2009 Meh, as has been pointed out, you can make viruses for these systems. I've actually read an article about how bragging about there being no way to get a virus (though this was for linux, but they function similarly) was absolutely false. The author proceeded to write a simple virus, though he couldn't make it self-running and it exploited the type of desktop over just the core Unix system, but I assume Mac also suffers from that. Either way, the real reason fewer viruses get caught is because fewer viruses are made, plain and simple. -- Posted by soldierofjustice3 at 7:11 am on April 9, 2009 Quote: from Mikoto at 4:52 am on April 8, 2009 Ive never had a virus on my mac, and I've never installed any anti-virus software or run any tests.   I don't miss having to run tests all the time and have shitloads of software installed. :) If you've never had it scanned, how do you know your install is clean? -- Posted by espresso8097 at 11:23 pm on April 9, 2009 Quote: from soldierofjustice3 at 9:11 am on April 9, 2009 Quote: from Mikoto at 4:52 am on April 8, 2009 Ive never had a virus on my mac, and I've never installed any anti-virus software or run any tests.  I don't miss having to run tests all the time and have shitloads of software installed. :) If you've never had it scanned, how do you know your install is clean? Because Apple products are just that awesome. -- Posted by ElfQrin at 7:00 am on April 13, 2009 Technically it could happen. But Macs are: 1) More secure 2) No one writes them So it doesn't happen that much. Yes, tehre are virii out for Macs but chances are you prolly aren't going to get them. -- Posted by oink at 2:04 pm on April 16, 2009 Researchers dissect world's first Mac botnet -- Posted by someone16 at 11:05 am on April 18, 2009 In future Macs will have a lot of viruses. But also more anti-virus software. -- Posted by dkruges at 10:15 pm on May 18, 2009 It's because: 1. Not many people develop viruses for the Mac because of the market share 2. The security seems to be higher on Macs -- Posted by Niick at 12:13 pm on June 15, 2009 Quote: from GaelicFreak at 11:26 pm on April 6, 2009 My brother's downloaded tons of shady shit and we haven't gotten a virus yet. So it's pretty hard. No, that's because windows viruses cannot effect Macs. Theres no Mac viruses on those sites, because theres no point in attacking a few dozen users. -- Posted by Niick at 12:14 pm on June 15, 2009 Quote: from espresso8097 at 2:23 am on April 10, 2009 Quote: from soldierofjustice3 at 9:11 am on April 9, 2009 Quote: from Mikoto at 4:52 am on April 8, 2009 Ive never had a virus on my mac, and I've never installed any anti-virus software or run any tests.       I don't miss having to run tests all the time and have shitloads of software installed. :)    If you've never had it scanned, how do you know your install is clean?     Because Apple products are just that awesome. If theyre so awesome how come theyre obsolete within 8 months? -- Posted by allsmiles at 1:11 am on June 16, 2009 Quote: from Niick at 8:14 pm on June 15, 2009 Quote: from espresso8097 at 2:23 am on April 10, 2009 Quote: from soldierofjustice3 at 9:11 am on April 9, 2009 Quote: from Mikoto at 4:52 am on April 8, 2009 Ive never had a virus on my mac, and I've never installed any anti-virus software or run any tests.   I don't miss having to run tests all the time and have shitloads of software installed. :)   If you've never had it scanned, how do you know your install is clean?      Because Apple products are just that awesome. If theyre so awesome how come theyre obsolete within 8 months? I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic :P -- Posted by Sector Corrupt at 2:26 am on June 16, 2009 Quote: from allsmiles at 4:11 am on June 16, 2009 Quote: from Niick at 8:14 pm on June 15, 2009 Quote: from espresso8097 at 2:23 am on April 10, 2009 Quote: from soldierofjustice3 at 9:11 am on April 9, 2009 Quote: from Mikoto at 4:52 am on April 8, 2009 Ive never had a virus on my mac, and I've never installed any anti-virus software or run any tests.          I don't miss having to run tests all the time and have shitloads of software installed. :)       If you've never had it scanned, how do you know your install is clean?         Because Apple products are just that awesome.    If theyre so awesome how come theyre obsolete within 8 months? I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic :P It's hard to tell with them apple users. They can just be so fanatical about how much better macs are.   -- Posted by anonomouse at 12:49 am on June 30, 2009 Why macs don't get viruses: They are still relatively obscure (not many people use them, especially in large networks) There is probably not much company/financial data on macs. It's mostly PCs that take care of that. This gives coders less incentive to write viruses OS X is built on Unix, which is much more solid and secure than Windows OS X completely disables the root account so that most average users can't mess with the computer even if they tried.  Thus, viruses can't exploit the root privileges because it is disabled. OS X has more security that will make you type your password before any virus has access to your system. In the end, writing a virus for OS X is not hard at all. It's just it's harder to write a virus that can install without the user noticing.